


Oh great I'm 3 again

by SpikeyGirl



Series: Through the portal [1]
Category: 'Real world', Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Canon Related, Chuunin Exams, Late crossover, May contain awesome happenings, OCs - Freeform, Occasional Crack, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Pairings come in later parts, Pre-Canon, References to Monty Python, Wave arc, abuse of science as we know it, cool justus, female OCs - Freeform, mildly strange protaganists, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-30 15:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 65,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1020197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpikeyGirl/pseuds/SpikeyGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two school girls, one portal, one adventure that goes on a roller coaster ride. These unlikely protagonists are sent on an obscure mission to the Naruto world in their 3 year old bodies, with all the knowledge and attitude they posses - which is a lot - and of course meeting people they thought only existed in stories.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on FFNet.

Max and Laura were bored. They were in the final lesson of the day, maths, not the most interesting lesson they attended. It wasn’t that they were bad at it, it was just boring and their teacher was strict, as in sneeze without her consent and you were as good as dead from that evil glare.

The topic of the lesson was trigonometry, they had been doing it for weeks and they were no closer to finishing there was only so much you could learn about triangles without wanting to smash something. Most of the class had coping mechanisms by now though there was the occasional breakdown.

Max was day dreaming, she couldn’t wait to get home to her computer so she could watch some more Naruto. To her it was the only thing that kept her sane during boring lessons, and also preventing her from sleeping any more than 4 hours per night.

Laura was thinking about random things, like which CSI was the best Greg from Vegas or Wolfe from Miami she just couldn’t decide. She decided to ask Louise her CSI buddy after class and thus changed her thoughts to the anime Max had told her to watch, it was called Naruto or something and Max was addicted to it so it couldn’t be that bad.

Max was imagining her future happiness when she got home, the episodes had some of her favourite characters and she desperately wanted to see what happened, her train of thought was cut off when she saw a board rubber flying thought the air towards her. Casually she leaned back on her chair letting it miss and hit the wall with a sharp crack, waking most of the class who had fallen asleep during a lecture on sine, cosine and tangent which they had heard for the third time.

Max picked it up from her book which had random doodles of ninja weapons and a drawing of random anime characters. Her book was like a time line, the further you got, the better the drawings were.

She turned to a fresh page and began a new drawing, she didn't worry about listening, as well as her drawing, her reflexes and instincts had gotten better from all the times something had been thrown at her.

Laura sat dealing cards to some of the kids next to her, she was only person who could be trusted to be impartial, she hated them all equally. For some reason their teacher had given up trying to stop it as long as they didn't gamble with actual things.

Time seemed to stretch on until the bell went and every one ran for the door but the teacher called Laura and Max to stay. As they stood there while the teacher went to get something they looked around, snooping through the desk, unfortunately stopped by the locked computer from snooping around files.

“Is someone in here?” asked Laura to the room, as Max pulled a small plastic bag of what looked like liquid jelly and started pouring it into the keyboard.

“I can’t see any one,” answered Max with disinterest to her friend’s paranoia.

“Maybe they're hiding?”

“In here? Why would anyone hide in here? People sell their souls to get out of here.” Max of course was in the possession of about 5 'souls'. Quickly bored again she draped herself over a chair, leaning it back and pulling a book out of her bag.

“Could be stalkers.”

“Who would want to stalk us?” Max knew Laura really could be over dramatic.

“Some paedophile or, or a rapist or even a murderer. Oh god were gonna die!” Max introduced her hand to her forehead, her other hand slapping Laura's shoulder to get her to calm down, it was only a foot against a desk that stopped Max from toppling over.

“Shut up. We are not going to die. I refuse to die in a maths classroom.” She paused for a second, “If you die, can I have your homework for physics?”

Laura looked at Max and sighed, Max never did her homework, it was amazing she kept in all the top classes. “What are you reading? Didn’t that get confiscated in English? You got told you would get it back when we finished reading the assigned book as a class.”

“Maybe…” Max looked a bit sheepish.

“Interesting,” said a voice.

Nothing Max could have done would have stopped the shrill noise from her friend in time. Max had also reacted, her foot jerking and pushing her chair past the point of no return. Max could have sworn she heard sniggering but chose to ignore it and act like this had been her plan, only rolling over a bit to by lying on the floor.

“Shut up Laura. You could wake the dead with that scream and I have no intention of having a zombie apocalypse on my hands today.”

“You heard it too!”

“If this ‘mystery person’ wanted to kill us they would have already killed us,” Max reasoned out, she missed out that she was wrong but Laura didn't need to know that when she wasn't thinking logically.

“I suppose.”

A movement caught Max's eye, her mind quickly matching up the blur to a pattern she recognised. Then the sceptical part of her laughed at her. Max narrowed her eyes, mentally replaying the few images before they faded. She knew what she had seen.

"Ok we might be in trouble," Max muttered, mostly to herself. Laura looked at her, ready to freak out. “Calm down, if they had wanted us dead, we would _be_ dead.”

“Correct,” said the voice, slightly amused. Two cloaked figured materialised. Max’s brain immediately supplied names for them.

“Itachi and Deidara of the Akatsuki,” Max stated her eyes slightly wide as she took in the situation.

“Who?”

“Some arguably bad guys in Naruto.”

“Are they gonna kill us?”

“We are still here, we can hear you,” Deidara grinned, he seemed more amused than homicidal.

“Tell me when I start caring,” Max shot back, acting braver than she felt as her mind tried to process exactly why fictional characters were here. She pinched herself, wondering if she'd just fallen asleep in class.

“If you know who we are then why aren’t you running?”

“As I said earlier you would have killed us if you need to so what do you want?”

“We need you to help us,” said Itachi. Max blinked then again then started laughing.

“Why would you, questionably two of the best Shinobi, need the help of us, two small weak insignificant girls?” asked Max, sniggering as her sense of self-preservation jumped out of the window.

“Hey less of the insignificant,” protested Laura, of course she chose then to be offended.

“If you listen I’ll tell you.”

“Ok fire away.”

“As you know I come from this 'Naruto' world. It’s actually a parallel world and we need your help to save it. If you agree then you will be transported back to where you need to be and when you're done we’ll transport you back and it will only have been 5 minutes because of a time dilation between them.”

“And in English for the slow people” asks Max motioning at Laura. Itachi brought out two sticks of pocky.

“This is your world,” he shook one piece. “This is my world,” he shook the other. “I want you to go to my world to stop various bad things from happening.”

"Like what?" Max inquired.

Itachi looked at her and smirked, "I can't tell you. I can assure you that you will be amazing."

“How do we know this isn’t a trap?”

“You don’t.” Itachi was still smirking. Max had a feeling he knew more that he was ever going to tell them here.

“Ok let’s go then.”

“But wait, they could be trapping us.”

“For what? Besides, if they were trapping us the would have tried to gain trust they haven’t so I can only assume they are trustworthy.”

“You have very strange logic.”

“No one knows what life is like, unless you hold your breath and take a dive. In other words, who cares it sure beats this place.”

“Ok but if we get killed I’m blaming you.”

“So will you go?"

“Let’s get this show on the road” Max agreed. Itachi activated Mangekyo and opened a portal, Deidara walked through first, proving it worked. Max shoved Laura through then walked through herself Itachi quickly jumped through as the portal started to disappear. No one noticed someone race in the room and follow them through.


	2. Waking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Laura start their adventure in Wonderland (Not Alice's wonderland)  
> They also start as they mean to go on. Driving people crazy.

There was something about waking up almost face down in dirt that reminded Max of home. She wasn't sure why but accepted it as she tried to figure out why she was lying on the ground somewhere outside. It eventually came to her, remembering the weird maths lesson and the even weirder encounter. Sitting up she felt a bit off balance, lying also on the ground, though not face down, was Laura, snoring gently. Max stood up to walk over but fell before she'd taken more than a step. it didn't take long to figure out why. 

It was weird, imagine one day you're just over five foot with boobs, the next day you're short and no boobs, that was what Max felt like, literally. Silver hair fell into her eyes as she assessed herself and Laura. It was hard to tell whether Laura was taller but it looked weird seeing her look so young. Her blonde hair surrounded her head like a halo making her the picture of innocence. Max scoffed at the idea. She estimated they were physically about three, long enough to have a bit more than basic control of their bodies.

"Laura, get up," she grumbled nudging Laura with her foot and almost falling over again, her sense of balance was a bit weird due to the change in height and lack of weighted mass in certain areas.

"Five more minutes," Laura moaned before rolling over.

"Oh look its Greg … With no shirt!" Laura bolted upright and looked around wildly. She was predictable sometimes.

"Where? I don't see him, you lied to me! How could you?" cried a melodramatic Laura. Max slapped her 3 year old forehead. New dimension, same Laura. "Wait, aren't we in a Japanese anime?" pointed out Laura.

"Yep, lucky we took that 'Japanese for dummies' course at school. Who knew we could pick up the basics quickly?" noted Max, Learning Japanese had been helped by the fact Max preferred anime while dubbed, she had no aptitude for languages and had to work twice as hard as anyone to keep up. Japanese had been interesting to her so she'd worked even harder.

Suddenly a figure dropped down from a tree and looked at them. At least they assumed the person was looking at them, it's hard to tell with a cat mask. The figure was obviously female and her dark green hair was pulled into two short ties on the top of her head.

"Are you lost?" asked the figure in a soft voice, Max and Laura recognised the Japanese and answered in the same language.

"No, we just don't know where we are," replied Max, the figure looked in shock no three year old had that kind of fluency with words let alone a smart mouth. Oh well, she, as a ninja, had seen stranger things. The talking goldfish from a few missions ago had been somewhat weird. Besides loads of clans were cranking out prodigies so talking at a young age should have been expected.

"What are your names?" asked the figure crouching down to the two girl's level.

"We were told not to talk to strangers," said Laura acting shy.

"My names Tora, now you know my name I'm not a stranger any more," said 'Tora' as if her name would solve the issue.

"Do you have candy?" asked Max.

"No but if you tell me your names I can get you some candy"

"How do we know you aren't a paedophile or a rapist?" asked the ever paranoid Laura.

"You have to trust me."

"Yeah without trust you get no candy," whispered Max to Laura, mimicking one of there friends favourite sayings, they both started to giggle; confusing 'Tora'.

"Are you going to tell me you names" asked 'Tora'.

"No, but we would like directions to the nearest village"

"The nearest village is called Konoha and is directly north if you want you can come with me I'm heading there now." Max and Laura looked at each other, shrugged and nodded. The set off north of the clearing, keeping a distance between themselves and the 'Tora' person. After half an hour of walking Laura and Max were bored, a bored Max was a dangerous Max. To alleviate the mood Laura decided to help.

"Are we there yet?" asked Laura. They looked like kids, they might as well act like it.

"No," replied the masked person.

"Are we there yet?" asked Max.

"No"

"Are we there yet?" asked Laura.

"No"

"Are we there yet?" asked Max.

"Yes"

"Really?" asked the 3 years old in unison.

"No, now stop asking"

"Okay," the two girls chorused. They fell into silence until Laura had a new idea of annoying the person.

"Where do babies come from?" asked Laura, Max had to hide her amusement.

"Huh?" asked 'Tora'.

"Where do babies come from?" repeated Laura, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Um, well, err, um, shouldn't you ask your parents these kinds of questions?"

"We don't know who our parents are so we never got to ask them."

"Oh, well you see, uh. When a man and woman love each other, um, they, uh, they play a game and then 9 months later a baby appears"

"Okay." The silence was back with vengeance, it was taunting the two girls to speak. Max had an idea this time.

"Why is the sky blue?" asked Max.

"Because someone painted it blue" 'Tora' figured it wouldn't hurt to lie about that.

"Why?" asked Laura catching on.

"Because he was bored."

"Why?" asked Max. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to respond to the children.

"Because he had nothing to do."

"Why?" asked Laura.

"Because he didn't go to school, learn stuff and get a job."

"Why?" asked Max.

"I don't know. STOP ASKING QUESTIONS."

There was a pause.

"Why?" they asked in unison. Tora took out a kunai and threw it. It hit the tree millimetres above Max's head. Both girls' eyes were wide and for a second 'Tora' was worried they would start crying. That would really not make her day.

"That… Was…SO COOL! Can you show me how to throw like that? I promise I'll shut up if you do," ranted Max her eyes were sparkling in anticipation as if she hadn't planned it/

"Ok but you better shut up."

"Yay!" cheered Max. They took a break from walking and found a clearing. 'Tora' gave them both hints on throwing after seeing them throw, Max still tended to hit slightly to the left but were really powerful and Laura needed more power or the kunai wouldn't stick but her aim was good. They started to move again. Then they came to a set of massive gates.

"Holy crap on a stick that gate is huge." exclaimed Laura stating the obvious as usual.

"What gate? It's not like its ten foot tall right in front of me so that I can't miss it," said Max her sarcastic side making an appearance. Tora was now officially confused; these girls switched moods so randomly.

"You two need to see the Hokage if you want to stay here." noted 'Tora'.

"Okay. Uh, can you take us there or we might get lost or worse die and then our deaths will be on your conscious and you'll be riddled with guilt and kill yourself because you can't take the pain of letting two innocent kids die," said Laura finally stopping for breath, both Max and 'Tora' sweat dropped.

"Okay. Follow me," sighed 'Tora', so they did. When they got to the office 'Tora' ushered them in.

"Good afternoon Tora. I hope your mission was a success," inquired the Hokage.

"Yes it was. I also found these two, they were lost and I believe they would be useful in the torture and interrogation unit. They can drive anyone to insanity. Trust me I know I've known them for just over an hour and I already never want to see or hear from them ever again," she said emphasizing the 'ever again', the two girls look at the adults innocently.

"Do they have parents?" the old man asked.

"Not that I know of."

"You could ask us. We may not bite," said Max. 'Tora' raised a sceptical eyebrow. "She doesn't bite," Max amended.

"Do you have parents?" asked the Hokage again directing the question at the two girls.

"We did but we don't know if there around anymore."

"You'll have to go to the orphanage."

"NO! We aren't going anywhere like that, why don't you give us a flat?" the Hokage sweat dropped as both girls attempted to look fearful but actually just looked a bit homicidal. The Hokage was already thinking, if these two girls could emit such a high level of killer intent then they could be useful as ninjas. It never hurt to have a few extras.

"You're three years old." Max started twitching, Laura backed away slowly.

"I don't care I am not going to any orphanage," ranted Max, winds blowing everything around, the Hokage thought of an option quickly.

"Well there is one boy I'm worried about, so I suppose if you were willing to look after him as well, since no one else is willing, and you've shown you can be mature then I'll let you have a small flat with some adult supervision." The office calmed down dramatically.

"Thanks, I just have one more question," said Max.

"Yes," groaned the Hokage.

"When can I join the ninja academy? I want to be like Tora," Max said, her eyes wide and adoring at 'Tora', Laura had to stifle giggles. Max was mucking around as usual.

"Normally it's eight, some start earlier but it's up to the parent or in your case, I suppose when ever you want to, despite your age, but I'm not sure." The Hokage had a bad feeling about this and for some reason so was 'Tora'. this seemed too easy but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"It would help me look after this boy," said Max innocently her eyes all wide and pleading.

"I suppose I can arrange it but you have to learn henge before so you look the same age as your class mates. I don't want the Uchiha's to think they have competition, they're pissed off as it is."

"Deal!"

"I'll arrange it all by tomorrow. You'll have to spend one night at the orphanage though." Before Max could speak Laura cut in, she didn't want to push their luck.

"We can deal with that." The Hokage nodded at 'Tora' who escorted them out of the building towards another part of the village. As the walked, Max looked around; memorising places to build up her knowledge of the village. She knew that in a week she would walk around as if she had lived there all her life. 'Tora' stopped in front of a building Max almost bumping into Laura who had also stopped.


	3. One night

In front of the trio stood a tall grey building that looked more like an abandoned asylum than a place for children. Most of the windows were boarded up, others were as grubby as a mud pit. Max decided if she ever had to stay here longer than the night she would end up making the place more of a mess, if of course that was possible. "We have to stay here?" exclaimed Max, expressing her distaste and Laura's too, both their faces twisted into frowns.

"Yep, so tough luck," said 'Tora', glad that the girls would get payback for there incessant talking. The door opened and 'Tora' shoved them in and made a run for it.

"What do we have here?" asked the stern faced woman who opened the door just before the two girls collided with it from the shove.

"Are you blind or something? We're two girls, age about three, getting dumped here," said Laura, the woman's face showed displeasure at being insulted.

"I suppose I have to take you in then. Don't just stand there come in," scowled the woman motioning for them to come in. Inside they were forcefully taken to a room at the right top, the door was barley attached to the wall and the kanji for 'demon' was drawn across in red letters. It looked way to much like blood for the two girls liking. "Until you can learn some manners you can stay with 'The Child' that ought to teach you a lesson." The thin lipped woman practically threw them inside and slammed the door making it creak.

Max and Laura looked around the bare room, in a corner there was a small heap of clothes and skin. They slowly walked over to it to find a small boy with what Max was sure was blond hair but due to the fact it looked like it hadn't been washed in months she couldn't be sure. On each cheek were three whisker marks. The boy twitched. The girls recoiled not wanting to disturb him or frighten him. The child rolled over facing them; he slowly opened his eyes the girls coming into focus. He scrambled backwards against the wall, making himself as small as possible.

"We aren't going to hurt you," said Max in a gentle voice, similar to the one 'Tora' used on them. The boy just tried to make him self smaller. Max twitched, this wasn't the kind of body language any child should have. Had this not been so serious Laura would have been laughing, Max had some how missed on any maternal instincts.

"I think he can see the knife thingy in your pocket," noted Laura, Max looked at her pockets and saw the kunai she had 'acquired' sticking out of her pocket. She took it out slowly and put it carefully down in front of the boy. The point was facing herself just for reassurance.

"There, I'm unarmed and so is my friend here," said Max, Laura offered her open hands for proof, the boy looked up slowly and looked at them assessing if they were a threat. He came to his conclusion and sat up uncurling his arms from around his knees. Both girls could see the hair trigger he was on, if they made one wrong move and he would go into turtle mode. "I'm Max and this is Laura. What's your name?" Max asked.

"Naruto," was the small reply, Max looked at him in mild shock; she hadn't expected him to be so small. Laura was about to mention that 'Naruto' was the name of the anime when Max put her hand up to silence her.

"Do you want to hear a story?" asked Max, Naruto looked wide eyed at them no one had been this kind to him he nodded frantically, not wanting to miss an opportunity to know what it's like to have some one talk to him. "Ok I'll tell you a story just stop nodding your head might fall off." Naruto stopped nodding fearful that he had done something wrong.

Max leant against the wall hands behind her head and took a breath. "Once upon a time, there was a man, the greatest of his era some said a genius said others. He was the Fourth Hokage also known as the Yellow Flash. His rule over Konoha was a good one he was adored by the villagers," Max started remembering the story from the manga. "But one day disaster struck, a nine tailed fox appeared heading for Konoha. Wave after wave of ninja were sent to stop the great beast but none of them succeeded. The fox continued on its destructive path levelling mountains creating huge tidal waves,"

Max paused for dramatic effect. "Finally the Hokage had an idea, it probably wasn't the easiest thing to do but it would save the village and the people remaining. He went to the battle in all his glory; ninjas turned their heads and knew their leader would save them," Naruto was engrossed in the story. Laura had started to help acting out the battle with Max as the story was told. Max was the Fourth and Laura was the fox. "In a flurry of seal a gigantic frog appeared and another set of seals later there was a flash of light and a cloud of smoke engulfed the frog and the fox. A minute later it was over the fox was gone but the Hokage was dead sacrificing himself for the village he loved. No one knows what happened, some say he killed it, others say you can't kill a great beast like that so it must have gone somewhere else. The end," Max finished the story and they both bowed to a clapping Naruto.

"Thank you, thank you, you're to kind," said Laura, sitting down and stretching her arms trying to stop a yawn. Outside the sun was across the horizon. Silence reigned. Max looked at Naruto who looked at Laura who looked at Max.

"Why are you being nice to me?" asked Naruto.

"We don't believe any one should be neglected. It's child abuse therefore it's wrong," said Laura.

"Yeah, adults should know better," contributed Max, she had managed to refrain from swearing. They both remembered the project they had done in one of their lessons.

"What's child abuse?" asked Naruto. Both girls looked at him in shock, again.

"Child abuse is where an adult hurts a child or neglect them by not giving them what they need to survive," explained Laura. "This is clearly a case of child abuse." 

"It's what I deserve I'm a monster and a demon, like the fox from your story," Naruto said sadly. He had no idea how close to home he hit. Max was so desperate to tell him but she knew the law, she doubted she would escape punishment just because she was new.

"No one deserves this kind of treatment," Laura said with determination.

"And I have an idea," said Max a cunning smile on her face but Naruto looked confused.

"That, my small friend is Max when she has a plan, a cunning plan," said Laura, Naruto slightly shocked at the mention of 'friend'. "We'll have to wait for a while until an adult comes," schemed Max.

"Miss Foamy comes soon with food because I'm not allowed to associate with the other kids," said Naruto sadly.

"Ok that great we'll just have to wait until then," said Max, an evil glint in her eyes. Five minutes later the door opened and Miss Foamy walked in with a tray and harshly put it down spilling some of the grey mush in a cracked bowl. "I've been meaning to talk to you," said Max an innocent look on her face.

"What is it, brat,"

"Well Miss Foamy, it is Miss isn't it? Of course it is," Max started dismissively, "Is this how you treat all of the children here? Because I don't think the Hokage will be please with this kind of treatment." Max was all business in a way only she could, all her body language screamed professional. The subtle insult wasn't missed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Allow me to properly introduce my self. I am Agent Max and I was sent here by the Hokage to check out the orphanage and make sure the children are being treated ok," bluffed Max.

"Why would he send a three year old?" sneered Miss Foamy. That was the most obvious flaw in Max's story, but Max had a counter.

"If he sent an adult, then he would only know about the better treated kids but if he sent a misbehaving kid or two then they could tell him how they were treated," lied Max smoothly hiding the grin as Miss Foamy realise this was bad, very bad. Man, this woman was guillible.

"If you'll excuse me I'll need to set up two new beds in the dorm." "Two? There are three of us." "I'm not letting a demon sleep with the other kids." Max winced at the harshness of the word 'demon'.

"I don't see a demon I see a neglected child. Neglect is child abuse and child abuse is wrong so unless you want to loose your licence and your job I suggest you make that three beds," Max answered with a smirk.

"I'll do it straight away," Miss Foamy said with a forced smile and disappeared slamming the door. Three seconds later they all burst out laughing.

"That was great." Naruto looked at them with awe filled eyes.

"That reminds me of when you convinced that sub teacher you were a genius and should be teaching the class," said Laura between fits of laughter.

"I got that idea from when that teacher kept asking you for the answers," remembered Max. They told each other jokes and little stories to amuse them selves.

Ten minutes later Miss Foamy came back and motioned for them to follow her. She led them to a door on the second floor and opened it. Inside were thirteen beds, ten had lumps in the other three were waiting for them with a thin blanket on top. Laura and Naruto took ones on one side and Max took the other one as their beds.

"Lights out now, no talking and go to sleep." With that Miss Foamy turned of the lights and left the room. The trio lay down and went to sleep. Naruto was on his first proper bed with a blanket as well. He didn't want to sleep in case he woke up and found out it was only a dream, but eventually he fell asleep. The other two following not long after.

Unknown to them a certain old man had been watching every thing glad Naruto had some friends. At around one in the morning Max woke up with a start, she couldn't remember why she had woken, she just knew she wouldn't be able to get to sleep again. She lay down again. Then she heard something. She sat up again looking around, her eyes landed on Naruto's small form which was shaking slightly a small sound of crying. She walked over two his bed and saw his face distorted in pain. She sat on the edge of his bed and moved his hair out of his eyes, absentmindedly combed through his hair with her fingers. Laura may not have seen her maternal side but it did exist. He calmed down a bit and moved closer two her, holding on to her unconsciously fearing she would leave and not come back. She lent against the headboard and fell asleep, hugging Naruto.


	4. Just a Kid

Max woke up with a stiff neck and dry mouth. Half expecting to be crashed on the sofa around Laura's house she cracked open an eye, puzzling for a minute, and then everything that happened yesterday came rushing back. Maths, the portal, Laura and her thumb sucking habit, 'Tora', the orphanage and finally Naruto. Looking around she noticed no one else was up. The first rays of sun were lighting up the beds nearer the window.

Something moved next to her she looked down to see the little blond using her as a pillow. On the bed next to them Laura was asleep, sucking her thumb again. Max lent back and stared at the ceiling. 

Max edged out from under him and stretched her short arms and rolled her neck to get rid of the cramps from sleeping in an awkward position. In her bed Laura stretched out like a cat and yawned. Her thumb was all wrinkled and pruney from being in her mouth all night. Getting out of bed she stretched properly, it was normal for them as they used to practice parkour on the way to school. Naruto watched with interest.

"Why are you doing that," he asked curiously. He flinched when Laura stopped and turned to him.

"It helps loosen up the muscles so they move better and gets rid of aches and pains if you do it right," replied Laura brightly, she was a morning person, unlike Max. Not five seconds later the door burst open and Miss Foamy walked in with a bell and started to ring it. Slowly the other kids woke up, moaning and groaning.

"Everybody up and down in the common room in fifteen minutes, new kids you too," said Miss Foamy, projecting her voice around the room. Some of the other kids looked at them in curiosity. Max decided it was to early and collapsed back on her bed. Naruto hid behind Max's lying form, not liking the attention. Normally if people gave him attention he got hurt. Max reached behind her to ruffle his head in reassurance. One kid had the nerve to talk to them.

"Are you new?" asked the boy who looked about six.

"Yes, but we aren't staying long"

"That's what they all say," an older kid said. Max snorted.

"But do the other kids talk to the Hokage and persuade him because of a really good reason…? No…? I didn't think so," said Laura.

"What's he doing here anyway, isn't he supposed to be in his room?" said another kid pointing at Naruto. Max rolled of the bed over Naruto's crouching body to in front of him, ready to protect him should things turn ugly.

"He's here because I told Miss Foamy that he was to have a proper bed or I would make he loose her licence. The look on her face was awesome," reminisced Max smiling fondly at the memory.

Everyone suddenly realised they had to get sorted glancing nervously above her head her. Max slowly turned Naruto following but keeping behind her. Behind her stood Miss Foamy her arms folded and a sneer on her face. Max sighed, why did that always happen? The second she said something bad about someone, they would always appear behind her.

"And what look was that? This one or this one," she said her sneer changing to a smirk.

"A mix of horror and the look you get when your about to pee your self in terror," said Max, unfazed by the now snarling adult. She had done this kind of thing so often that it was second nature. Miss Foamy lunged forward, intent on hurting Max or even Naruto if she could.

Max pushed Naruto to the side, toward Laura's bed. Max turned side on slipping into a stance she had seen somewhere before, she may not have the muscle memory the refelxes were so ingrained into her head that it was instinct. Miss Foamy reached out a hand to slap Max aside but Max pushed it out of the way holding the wrist as best she could with her small fingers. Twisting the arm in a way that Miss Foamy twisted too, Max pulled the arm down so Miss Foamy had to bend her knees, and therefore was very unstable.

Max was glad this worked, since normally a three year old would have trouble, but she assumed it was the adrenaline and the surprise.

"Don't ever try to hurt me or my friends," Max snarled, digging in her tiny fingers. She had noticed her morning mood rear its ugly face. The woman had crossed the line. Miss Foamy just pulled her arm out of Max's grip throwing her back slightly and glared at the small girl, Max glared back neither backing down. Everyone watched, tense, waiting for the next move in this theoretical chess game between adult and three year old. Laura sneezed and everyone looked at her except the two who were battling it out. The door opened and a familiar masked figure walked in.

"Miss Foamy. I'm here to escort the two new girls and Naruto to the Hokage," announced the masked figure, no one moved.

"We think there frozen why don't you tap one of them to see if their ok," suggested Laura looking innocent. 'Tora' thought for a moment then walked forward and taped Miss Foamy on the shoulder. The girl was too unpredictable to get the attention of safely.

The glaring adult blinked and turned around to face the masked person.

"Ha, I won, you lose, you suck," crowed Max dancing around in victory. The others looked at her in shock. No one had dared talk to Miss Foamy like that.

"You better be here to take these brats away," said Miss Foamy. 'Tora' nodded and motioned for then to come with her. Laura took Naruto's hand and led him with them. When Miss Foamy saw this and couldn't believe her luck, she was getting rid of the monstrous brat as well as the two smart mouthed brats.

As the trio of children followed 'Tora' to the office Naruto looked around. It wasn't every day he could walk down the street without being chased and beaten. Both Max and Laura saw the looks that some of the villagers were giving him and sent there own glares back. It was the kind of glare that would be in league with the standard Uchiha glare.

They reached the office not long later. 'Tora' knocked on the door then opened it lading the small group in.


	5. The meeting of their Flatmate (the allegedly responsible one)

Inside sat the Hokage smoking on his pipe. The door closed behind them, making some of them jump. The silence was making them a bit edgy.

"You two have been here less than twenty four hours and you've all ready got into trouble," stated the Hokage looking at them. Max and Laura acted all innocently as if they would never hurt a fly.

"Actually that's a very good point but we have a very good reason," said Laura sheepishly, the Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"You see we went to the orphanage and the woman was either blind or stupid so we voiced our opinions," added Max.

"Yeah then she took us up to the top of the building and threw us in the room with Naruto," Laura said, Max and Laura had perfected tag teaming arguments.

"Did you know he has no other clothes but the ones he wears and he didn't even have a bed?"

"Till we showed up and bluffed our way into getting us three a bed each."

"Then this morning I was telling a story when Miss Foamy takes it offensively and charges at me and Naruto who was be hind me so naturally I moved him out of the way and defended my self," finished Max.

The Hokage looked at them assessing their story. Both Max and Laura were slightly nervous, why would he be taking this long to reach a decision, was he that slow? The tension was suffocating. Finally the Hokage removed the pipe from his mouth. Even Naruto was looking kind of nervous. He clung onto Max like a safety blanket. She had stopped him from getting hurt once so she would do it again he hoped optimistically.

"Although I do not completely condone your actions, you did a good thing showing strength and the will to become a ninja, therefore you will be joining the academy as soon as you finish learning Henge, 'Tora' here will tutor you," Max and Laura couldn't believe it they had got of pretty much scot free. 'Tora' looked less than impressed.

"But you did not have to use physical force Max you could have moved," said the Hokage sternly this was the downside Max and Laura knew it would come. It always did.

"Then she would have followed and gotten more enraged, she might have turned on Naruto and blamed him. I wanted to keep him safe he doesn't deserve the treatment he gets, he deserves better. No kid should get this kind of treatment," growled Max defending her case.

"You don't know this but I accept your explanation. I have decided were you will live Naruto will be living with you and so will another person, she will be there to look after you in general and you are there to keep her sane," sad the Hokage wisely, Naruto looked ecstatic he was leaving the orphanage.

"Who's the other person?" asked Laura.

"Anko Mitarashi." Max's mind wandered a bit, wondering why he trusted them so much they hadn't been here long.

"You two are probably wondering why you're so trusted." Max's eyes widened but she regained her composure.

"Yup," said both girls in almost unison.

"You both showed a lot of promise and three year olds aren't that impressionable so you aren't working for anyone, you seem genuine and the ANBU watching you seemed to think that other than being really irritating you two are just extremely bright kids," stated the Hokage, Max guessed they would be watched for longer.

"You also forgot your back packs, there are some unidentified items that we would be grateful if you explained," he said as he emptied one of the bags.

Inside held some modern technology and basic survival items that both girls recognised from experiences camping. It also contained clothes, some sweets and similar items they might need, including what was probably a large amount of the local currency.

"Can you explain what the objects are in this pile," said the Hokage gesturing to a pile on his left. In the pile was the laptop and the MP3player. Max looked at Laura and shrugged.

"This black square thing is called a laptop its like uh magic box with a couple of feature like a document for writing stuff in something to do calculations something to do presentations and other stuff I cant remember," explained Max pointing to the laptop, she was trying to avoid the description 'Magic Box'.

"This is an MP3player, it plays music and can be taken anywhere, it's light and hand…, oh god I sound like a commercial." moaned Laura, Max laughed.

"Can I have a demonstration at some point, not at the moment but once you've settled in." It wasn't a surprise he wanted a demonstration, advanced technology could potentially help Konoha.

"Of course, you're letting us stay here and we love showing off our amazing explanation skills that are practically nonexistent," said Laura. The Hokage didn't have time to respond as the window burst open and in jumped a purpley blue haired girl of about 14 whom Max recognised as Anko. This was going to be fun.

"You wanted to see me Lord Hokage"

"I've got a new place for you to live after your apartment got trashed. You'll have to keep an eye one these three, from what I've seen they can take care of themselves. I just need some one around to keep them under control and it'll do you some good," the Hokage said before Anko could protest Max butted in.

"We aren't going to judge you or treat you any different I personally don't care how chequered your past may or may not be. As far as I'm concerned your future is what you want it to be," said Max.

"Why the hell do you have random moments where you say wise stuff?" asked Laura, hitting the back of Max's head to snap her out of it before she did something stupid like stealing the Hokage pipe and pretend to stroke an invisible beard. It wouldn't be the first time.

"It's because I ... no idea," said Max stumped.

"It's kind of strange," commented Laura.

"And it's like you're dumb moments," retorted Max.

"Well… um …..You're stupid."

"That was lame."

"…"

"Ok… now here the keys to your apartment. 'Tora' will take you there and Max you start training on Monday," said the Hokage eager to have his office return to normal calmness. Max and Laura grabbed their stuff and with the other two and 'Tora' they walked out.

On the way to the apartment there were many more glares and mutterings, Max and Laura glaring and Using an 'acquired' blade to ruin some sandals, cut holes in shopping bags and generally be annoying. Both Anko and Naruto were apprehensive though since they went exactly Konoha's most popular and would likely get the blame. They finally reached the apartment and were led in the 'Tora' disappeared leaving them to settle in.

It was a small flat, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen area and a small living room. One of the bedrooms had a set of bunk beds and a single bed by the window while the other room had a single bed, both had a small chest of drawers and a wardrobe. First thing Max did was booby trap the surrounding area. Though a ninja would be able to dismantle it, it would at least give them warning, and amusement, she had rigged the traps themselves to explode paint if someone tried to tamper with it.

That warning could be the thing that saved their lives. The amusement... that would be what killed them.

"Right short people house rules: don't bug me before 10am if you value your lives, don't enter my room unless invited and in general don't bug me," stated Anko then she left to get what remained of her stuff. She planned to ignore them as much as possible. She didn't want to get attached.

Max, Laura and Naruto went to their room and grabbed a bed each. Max had the single bed Naruto had the lower bunk and Laura had the top. Max spent the rest of the day setting up the laptop and finding that she had internet even though she wasn't sure it existed in this world.

The other two played cards after Laura taught him some games including poker; she quickly found his luck was defiantly better than hers. She lost all but one game and she had only one it because Max had mimed his cards so Laura knew his hand.

The three of them then just talked for the rest of the day Max and Laura had been given an allowance and gone to get food and new clothes. Being small but intelligent they used it to their advantage to get good deals. The shopping district didn't know what hit it.


	6. Training and school

(A couple of weeks later)

Max panted, wiping the sweat from her forehead, it had been a pretty boring day until Anko decided to spar with her. Now she was fighting for her life or at least so she didn’t have to hospital, though she didn’t know why, she had never been freaked out by hospitals until a couple of days after arriving she’d had to have a check up. Max shuddered at the memory, she never wanted to go back and she was sure the nurses and doctors never wanted to see her either.

Laura was on the internet; after they had found the laptop had internet she had been researching forensics because of what she wanted to do when she was older she had found that ninjas had a division dedicated to solving murders and other mysteries.

Naruto was… ‘Wait, where’s Naruto’ thought Laura frantically looking up from the laptop, outside she heard yells of annoyance and assumed that he had played a prank. She should never have let Max tell him some of the stuff they had done.

In the last week alone he had duct taped some shoes to the ceiling. Max had given him that idea after telling him about the time when she had duct taped some trainers to the ceiling in English. Though how she did that was a mystery and where she got them was an even bigger mystery.

Anko was still slightly insane but had a soft spot for Naruto when he pulled out the puppy dog eyes. In turn Max and Laura would ignore it, he hadn’t mastered it like they had but then again they had, had longer to practice.

“Ok stop I’m going to die if I keep this up” panted Max as she crawled into the living room and flopped onto the couch. she shifted about, wincing with every other movement and started poking Laura.

“What!” snapped Laura

“Can I have a drink?”

“Get it your self.”

“But I’m tired.”

“I don’t give a damn!”

“Please?” Max asked with wide eyes and pouting lips.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“You’re mean.”

“Deal with it.”

“Ok.” Max began to poke her again, getting the ticklish spot far too often for Laura to appreciate.

“How is poking me dealing with it?” Laura snapped, slamming the laptop closed and facing the girl.

“It makes me feel better, I’m not the only one in discomfort,” said Max. Suddenly the door burst open and Naruto ran in the door crashing shut behind him.

“If anyone asks I was here all the time,” pleaded Naruto as he hid behind Max, shoving her forward so that she would only have to lean forward a bit to fall off. There was an impatient knock at the door, probably Naruto's victim. Laura showed no sign of hearing it so Max was left to answer it. She lent forward on the sofa and tumbled onto the floor, groaning as she picked herself up and went to answer the door. On the other side of the door was Itachi Uchiha, Shinobi to be extraordinary. Max was too tired to glare, but settled for a look of disgruntlement she was tired and so shouldn’t be disturbed.

“What do you want?” asked Max, she couldn't wait for her voice to mature even a bit so it wouldn't sound so high pitched.

“Does Naruto live here?”

“Why?”

“He left his goggles behind,” he offered holding up said goggles. Max took them and tried to glare at them, had Naruto learnt nothing about leaving no evidence.

“I’ll give them to him. Do you want to come in?” It was only polite. She felt a frantic glare behind her, looking back she saw Naruto wildly shaking his head then ducking as his goggles flew threw the air at him smacking him in the face much to Max’s and Itachi’s amusement. Naruto pouted and fixed the goggles into place on his head.

“Ok I’m apparently not supposed to invite you in,” apologised Max with a sheepish smile. 

“Nice throw.”

“Thanks.”

“I should go know my parent might worry.” Max knew he was lying, she'd heard rumours about the prodigy, if anything his parents were worrying about him not living up to their clan's expectations.

“Ok bye." It was awkward, Max remembered why socialising wasn't her favourite activity.

“Bye.” Max shut the door and walked back to the couch, collapsing on it once again only to get shoved off by Naruto who had claimed her space, so once again she fell on the floor. Sighing again she got up and went to the socket and pulled out the laptops power cable, belatedly remembering that he point of a laptop was not needing a constant power supply. she tugged the tech out of Laura's hands and slid it into Anko's room, a place they dared not set foot.

“What did you do that for?” demanded a pissed off Laura.

“You spend way much time on that thing, you're going to become a couch potato and you didn’t get me a drink when I was dying so you told me to deal with it and I did.” explained Max looking smug but her face fell seconds later. “I’m bored” she moaned.

“…”

“I’m really bored.”

“Why don’t you act your mental age not your physical age, you could read you know.”

“Oh yeah! There were a couple of scrolls when we woke up, I’ll read them,” Max said suddenly energised. She ran to there room and opened her drawer and opening a secret compartment she had added one other boring day, inside were a couple of scrolls and a bit of money. 

She picked up the scrolls, most were technique scrolls and there was a summoning contract for guns, some chakra control exercises and general scrolls. Max could reach her chakra and the third day she had been in Konoha she had got her self some weights but not to heavy for her three year old body. It wouldn't be good to stunt any growing she needed, she did not want to be short again. 

Opening the chakra control exercise she saw a detailed explanation off the tree walking, putting the other scrolls in her back pack, she headed out the door and walked to her usual training ground. Max was a dedicated person, when she was reminded anyway, and she was living one of her dreams. She was going to make the most of it. She wanted to be the very best, like no one was before. 

Laura's dream was to be a forensic investigator, and under the tutelage of Max, when she was practising traps she could also learn how to spot signs on them. Max and Naruto would prank places, for some strange reason the Hyuuga compound was a favourite as was the Uchiha district and Laura would observe the fallout and the resulting scene. Funnily enough they were only caught once, and that was when Max had sneezed and fallen out of a tree right on top of everyones favourite Uchiha prodigy. Naruto had soon followed because he had been laughing so hard he lost his balance.

\----

Three days later she mastered tree walking and a month later she was running up and down like a squirrel being chased by a dog and had progressed to water walking. These exercises had two purposes, to get good chakra control for genjutsus and to build up chakra reserves. she knew at some point she owuld find out how to get to her tennents supply but never wanted to have to rely on it. Other month after training she was ready to enter the academy. She had read loads of scrolls and books and practised every day using chakra to almost exhaustion but she was ready.

One her first day she henged into a six year old version of her original form, a fairly unassuming child, dark hair, brown eyes and kind of short, a form she was familiar with. In her classroom a couple of people already sat. Including Itachi, Max skillfully avoided looking at him too much, he didn't know the form and she wasn't going to let it slip, a self assigned task. She saw an empty seat next to him, it would probably not stay empty for long. Out of habit in the back corner by the window, coincidentally behind Itachi. 

Gradually the room filled up, a girl named Hana Inuzuka sat next to her, three puppies sitting either on the desk or on her. 

Half an hour later their teacher walked in and introduced himself, after two sentances Max had zoned out. During the lecture Max brought out a skill she had taken years to master; the art of not paying attention but still remembering anything interesting. It had taken years to develop. This had also reminded her of how much she hated school. Not the learning, but the constant need to pay attention, she was far too restless.


	7. The birth of Fleidermaus Augen

Max was staring at the chalkboard, willing it to not have a load of notes to copy down. The lecture was on the history of sebon. Gripping, really. Her hand hurt from writing, she wasn't used to the Japanese way of writing and writing in English wasn't really an option in class.

Looking ahead in the text books she had seen something she could wait for. Personalised techniques, A history of. She couldn't wait because she wanted to make her own, have a signature technique that people would fear. Having so many siblings in the other dimension Max wanted to stand out even a tiny bit.

She zoned out of the lesson, she would borrow Hana's notes later in case they were tested on the exact details. Her old science lessons were way more exciting than this, even the theory lessons. Ignoring Hana's jabs to get her back to paying attention, she had no intention of lending Max her notes, the young girl reminisced some of her old lessons.

Of all of her lessons she missed chemistry the most, if it could be burnt then it was in those lessons. Then there was the physics lessons, one of her classmates had been dared to eat the radioactive material, only the teacher noticing stopped him.

An idea hit her like a ton of bricks. It had been a fun theory when they had discussed scientific theories behind superpowers.

She grabbed a scroll from her bag ad suddenly started to depict her idea using sketches and random annotations, in English for security reasons. At that point teacher looked around to see who was working and was pleased to see the girl at the back scribbling away, he assumed she was doing work. Max always had great timing.

Max finished writing and put down her pen, her hand was sore from writing for so long after trying to write in a different style. She looked down at her notes and groaned, she would be lucky if she could ready this later, her handwriting obviously hadn't improved. Next to her Hana was still poking her, Max turned to see the teacher looking over her.

"What ever I did it wasn't me," Max said immediately going defensive.

"I never said you did anything wrong, unless there something you would like to share?" the teacher asked in a far too casual tone. By now the whole class was watching and some sniggering, they knew this position oh too well.

"Um... no." Max started carefully "I was just making sure I wouldn't get blamed for anything that may or may not have been done. It pays to be prepared. Isn't that what you were telling us yesterday?" Max explained, hastily covering her mistake. The teacher glared at her, now the whole class would likely repeat that next time.

"Get back to work," he barked at the class. Everyone immediately went back to work as if there had been no interruption, Max could tell that excuse was going to become common amongst the class and grinned.

At the end of class, after lunch, Max sped out of the class room faster than a speeding bullet, jumping over desks in a single bound. Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it Max, super ninja… or at least that was her current train of thought. Being cooped up in a classroom really wasn't good for her.

She ran home and jumped through the window, onto her bed, completely ignoring any possible doors she could have walked through like a normal person. She grabbed her notes from a pocket and started to read it rewriting it in neater legible writing unlike her normal scrawl. Finally she started on her technique, practising until she got yelled at to help with some stuff. Just her luck she had to do the washing up. She could have sworn Laura was going to do it.

Laura wasn't always sat staring at the laptop, she spent some time gaining connections with some of the less desirable characters. She had borrowed Max's chakra information scrolls and learnt Henge from it so they wouldn't know her real age. They weren't likely to talk to a kid about any possible illicit deals they had heard about.

(A couple of months later)

Max panted, she had finished her technique a week back but it was far from perfect, now she was using it in a friendly spar with Itachi, Hana was sitting on the sidelines watching. After about the fourth week of school they had become friends when they had been sparing and Max had 'accidentally' splattered paint all over him as a distraction.

It was over a bet with Hana anyway. Could they get a reaction out of the famed prodigy in the middle of the playground? Max had bet that she could while Hana had said when hell freezes over.

He had frozen, for a few seconds Max and Hana had feared they'd broken him until he had wiped his hand through he wet paint then smeared it over Max's face.

She allowed her self a small smile, the look on their teachers face at their war paint had been priceless. After that they started to hang around during lunch and sometimes after school. Now they were sparing, Max was using her technique to get used to using it. She remembered explaining it to Laura, the only person who would understand it.

(Flashback)

"Hey Laura remember those physics lessons on waves and how each colour has a different frequency and stuff and the one with radiation particles?" Max asked innocently.

"Yes."

"I have invented a new way to see without opening my eyes. It's like bat's sonar but with chakra and my senses can tell the different colours because of the frequency and I can see other things because I use the chakra as different particles like alpha particles would get reflected by skin and beta by walls trees and similar and gamma could see inside safes and vaults if I get them to change in it path so I can see." Chakra was good for playing with the rules of physics.

"In English?" Laura asked, Max gave her a look, not quite sure if she had meant to simplify it or actually say it in English.

"I send out waves of chakra and the solid objects reflect it back I measure the distance by measuring the time it takes and the speed I send it at," Max took a breath. "Then I can also control the make up of the particles so I can control what I see so I could see behind people and any secret safes and since its reflected by solid things illusions don't affect it. I can also train my senses to pick up the different frequencies and translate it into colour."

"Still want superpowers then?" Laura had asked. They both could remember every time Max have been asked her plans for the future her answer had been superhero. Teachers hadn't been impressed

"Duh, you know Itachi who I train with right?"

"Yep."

"With his bloodline limit he can hypnotize people but he has to have eye contact so I have found a way to fight him. I am a genius! All I have to do is close my eyes and use this technique and his bloodline can suck it."

(End flashback)

Now she was getting used to it, it was more effort than she'd thought but it worked and that's all she'd truly wanted. After activating it, it would take a while to see properly,it would get better with practise transitioning. She had called it Fleidermaus Augen (bat eye) after the little she could remember in German and the fact it was based on a bat's way of seeing. Okay her German vocabulary was quite good but she always played it down, being called on in class didn't appeal to her so she played an idiot, there were only so many times she didn't mind her terrible accent and mispronunciations getting mocked. If 'die' was supposed to be pronounced 'dee' then they could have just changed the spelling.

She was bought back from memory lane when she felt she was flying until she hit the tree, creating a splintery dent. Using chakra to stick, she grabbed a couple of kunai and threw them at him. Then she jumped from the tree onto a branch nearby readying a few more.

Using the Fleidermaus Augen she was doing pretty well but it still was not fully battle ready. It took up chakra and control so it needed concentration and to analyse the chakra coming back needed patience and good senses. And the fact it was kind of hard to keep your eyes closed so she had taken to wearing a folded bandanna over her eyes.

\----

(Another couple of month's later - Total time in the Naruto 'verse: six and a half months)

Max was called into the testing room. Along with Itachi and Hana she had skipped a couple of classes and now they were taking the genin exam.

"Produce three doppelgangers then Henge into anyone of your choosing," commanded the bored invigilator, Max grinned, with a poof ten doppelgangers materialised with a small four year old in the middle.

"You pass," said the invigilator in the same tone. Max grabbed a forehead protector and ran outside to find Hana and Itachi waiting with theirs. When they saw her approaching they looked for her forehead protector which she had hidden behind her back, tucked into her belt.

"Well guys I'm afraid I …passed," Max declared bringing out her forehead protector. They had got used to Max's slang language, sarcasm and jokes, and purely by accident they both knew her real age.

"Where are you going to wear it?" asked Hana as she tied hers around her neck, Itachi's already on his forehead.

"I don't know," said Max thinking about it, and then an idea hit her she removed her training bandana and replaced it with the forehead protector. It rested on her forehead so it could be easily slipped over her eyes.

"Oh yeah, before I forget my mother asked me to invite my friends round for dinner to celebrate us passing the exam. Don't ask how she knew, I don't know. But be round for 6:30," said Hana, her dogs yipping in agreement.

"I'll have to ask for permission," said Itachi.

"I can go, it's not like anyone at home needs me and I'm not doing anything," said Max, they went their separate ways.

When she got home she was jumped on by Naruto.

"You passed! You're a ninja now!"

"Yup and I'm going round a friends later," said Max she continued into the living room to find Laura dissecting a stray cat. Again. "Do you have to do that here? We eat off this table," moaned Max the table already looked stained, she vowed never to eat of the table until it was replaced. Again.

"Where else am I supposed to do this? And wait, you don't even eat off it most of the time."

"I do too, sometimes. Besides can't you go far, far away to dissect the cat, where did you get the cat? Please say it didn't have a red ribbon around its ear," Max asked slightly panicked, if the Daimyo's wife asked to find a cat that Laura had just dissected they were a bit screwed. 

"No, it was a stray."

"Safe!"

"I'm assuming you passed then I mean you aren't sulking and you aren't killing people," Anko asked walking into the room, she took one look at the table and raised an eyebrow, "and that's not the spleen" she corrected as she pointed to one of the organs.

"I don't always kill things that just something you assumed."

"You killed that spider in class," Laura said gesturing with an organ.

"Because you and everyone else were screaming and cowering on tables," Max said defending her case, her ears had taken ages to recover from all that screaming.

"It's not my fault I don't like spiders."

"What's so scary about spiders?"

"They're just scary."

"Ok… Anyhow, I have to go round a friend's so see you later and don't let Naruto eat sugar unless you want to baby sit him on a sugar high. You know what happened last time. With the underwear and running around the market place chasing him," warned Max and with that she jumped out the conveniently open window.

On her way she saw Itachi walking the same way and being her she crept up behind him all ninja like. Then she tripped over. He turned around and saw her sprawled over the ground a scroll he had 'accidentally' dropped by her feet. He waited for her to get up and grabbed the scroll at her feet before they carried on their way.

"So you're allowed to go then?" Max asked, breaking the silence. the answer was really obvious but Max knew if she didn't start the conversation, he wouldn't.

"Yes."

"Awesome."

"I guess, but Sasuke was slightly annoyed, he wanted to come."

"Meh, tell him to get his own team. Naruto wanted to come too but I just said Laura would read him a story."

"Does she know she's reading him a story?" Itachi asked despite knowing what the answer would be. Sometimes he couldn't understand Max.

"Of course not, do you think I would allow her to make excuses beforehand?" Just then they got to the door, they knocked and waited. The door opened and something flew through the air towards them.


	8. Team dinner

With lightning reflexes, only made possible from a mix of her old maths lessons and her old ninja class, Max grabbed the projectile, only to find it was small and fluffy. And yipped. Then she realised it was a puppy. Looking towards the door was a small boy with the same markings as Hana staring at her and the puppy. Just then Hana came to the door.

"Sorry about that Kiba and Akamaru have been kind of hyper today," apologised Hana shoving the boy back into the house.

"It's ok, I'm used to it, Naruto lives on a sugar high," Max explained.

"Come in, dinner's in half an hour," she said. Max handed Akamaru back to Kiba who looked fearful of her, Max wondered what stories Hana had told him about them. They went into the living room and sat down, talking about the teams they thought would happen. They hoped that they would be together but they were the best in their class so it wasn't likely. Max made up her mind to talk to the Hokage afterwards, he owed her.

"Dinner kids!" yelled Tsume from the dinning room, everyone trailed through ignoring the fact Kiba was stuck behind them, trying to get passed. They sat down and saw the food before them. Itachi wasn't surprised, for him this was the usual but Max didn't, it was mostly 'food in the kitchen, eat it'. During dinner Tsume randomly asked questions, she had heard much about them from Hana and that apparently worried her.

"Itachi how's your family?"

"Fine but a bit busy." 

"Max I haven't heard about your family."

"I don't have a proper family-"

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I live with some friends but were as close as family, it's much better than a family for me, I like my independence."

"Who are they?"

"Anko Mitarashi, Naruto Uzumaki and Laura." Max and Laura had managed to avoid getting a last name, their names were distinct enough in this society.

"You live with Naruto? How did that happen?" Asked Tsume, her expression showing signs of curiosity and very faint relief.

"Yeah, I spent one night at the orphanage, got shoved in with him because Laura, my best friend, and I were a teeny bit rude to the old lady. The next day we asked the Hokage for a flat so we could look after him and we might get killed if we returned. He also told Anko to live with us because her apartment got trashed because of reasons, it's good for all of us. Keeps us safe, especially with all the traps we set up."

"Oh, well I'm glad he has a decent place to live, it's not his fault." This was very surprising to Max, she didn't know exactly what her views were, Tsume obviously noticed. "Not everyone hates him, but most of my clan carry the prejudices, I how ever don't." By now the other were confused.

"What are you talking about?" Hana asked, Itachi had figured she would ask so hadn't bothered.

"I can't tell you, it's an S-class secret."

"Then how do you know?"

"By accident." Nothing with Max was an accident, the other two knew that by now. By now everyone had somehow finished Kiba tugged at Itachi's sleeve.

"Play with me," Kiba said with puppy dog eyes causing every one else to laugh he had picked the only other male in the room obviously feeling out numbered.

"He won't bite Itachi, the two girls can help me clear up," suggested Tsume, ushering the two girls into the kitchen. In the kitchen the girl's laughter went into full-blown hysterics. Back in the living room Kiba was poking Itachi.

"Are you ok, you aren't moving? Do I have to do CPR? Mum taught me about it," asked Kiba wide eyed, slightly eager to show off what Tsume had taught him and impress his sister's friends.

"I'm fine," said Itachi twitching slightly. Max and Hana were drying up with their ears pressed to the door much to Tsume's amusement.

"Please play with me," Kiba asked pouting, Akamaru was looking at him with wide eyes in a way only a puppy could manage, though Laura and Max had gotten quite close.

"What do you want to play?" asked Itachi with a sigh.

"Ninjas! You be the bad guy I have to capture."

"He's a ninja playing 'ninja'," Hana sniggered from the kitchen just on the range of Itachi's hearing.

"Wouldn't you prefer to read a nice book," reasoned Itachi, maybe he could get out of this he hoped.

"Books are boring." Max almost dropped a dish in mock horror.

\----

Eventually it got late and Itachi went home while Max detoured via the Hokage's office, jumping through the window.

"Yo gramps,"

"Hello young Max," the Hokage greeted with exasperation.

"What team am I on? Am I with Itachi or Hana or both?"

"I can't tell you." The old man was going to try to actually keep Max from finding out. That was cute.

"Please?"pouted Max, putting years of practice of puppy dog eyes to use, she even had some sad music in the background and her lower lip was trembling. She couldn't qite get the crocodile tears.

"Gah, okay you're on a team with Shiba and Shisui." Max's eyes widened in shock and she fell over comically. The Hokage was not even trying to hide his amusement.

"But they're idiots! Do you want to kill me? Wait don't answer that. But I'll go mad and then there will be no one to look after Naruto and he'll get upset and hate Konoha for putting me so cruelly with them," said Max playing on his fondness for Naruto.

"You really should be in the torture division. Okay I'll put you with Itachi and Hana but only so you can practice your technique on someone with Sharingan and Hana since she is a budding medic Nin so you two will probably need her with your spars. You better behave and excel. If your teacher gives up on you because you were being annoying then I will send you back to the academy," the Hokage threatened he pulled out a sheet of paper and changed some things.

"Thanks gramps," said Max as she jumped out the window.

"What's so good about the window, is it so hard to use the door? I suppose I need a sucker… I mean, decent teacher for them," mused the Hokage. Tora jumped through the window in jounin gear, she had taken a break from the ANBU. 'Perfect' thought the old man.

(The next day)

"…And team seven will be Uchiha Itachi, Inuzuka Hana and Maxine. Your teacher is …what the hell? Hakie Yuri," Itachi silently cheered and Hana whooped and hugged Itachi and Max who was not to happy at her full name. None of them knew their teacher, not by name anyway.

"IT'S MAX GODDAMIT!" Max screamed at their teacher who had already moved onto the next group. Finally the list ended and they were let out for lunch.

"I wonder who our teacher is."

"Who cares, if I don't like them we'll get rid of them, simple as," said Max as she reclined against a tree, ideas already running through her head.

"Yeah I remember that teacher that subbed our lesson. She was a jonin and you still made her cry," Itachi reminisced.

"I heard she retired after that class," added Hana.

"Jeez, she deserved it, she was talking to me like I was four," grumbled Max.

"Max, you are four."

"Yeah but she didn't know that," protested Max. It was the best kept secret of the village.

Lunch finished and they went back to the class room. One by one the team's teachers came and left. Soon they were last and Max was bored.Five minutes later she had rigged up a water bomb with a time delayed flour bomb. The door opened and the missiles were released. Direct hit! Max cheered, Hana tried to hide her giggles and Itachi, he smirked. Then Max got a look at the teacher.

"... It's…it's…you, aw crap," moaned Max, she remembered the Hokage's words.


	9. Another Brick in the Wall

"I am Hakie Yuri," introduced the person Max knew as 'Tora', only recognising her from her hair and voice. Not the floury gunk she was covered in.

"I know who you are, you're 'Tora', I thought you were ANBU?" said Max puzzled slightly. In hindsight she probably shouldn't have revealed the fact she knew that.

"Do I know you?" asked Yuri, Max only then remembered her Henge.

"Uh… crap…. no but I know Laura," Max covered. At the name Laura, Yuri shuddered.

"Do you by any chance also know Max?" asked Yuri, afraid of the answer.

"Kinda, as our teacher I suppose you should know, even though I'm sure you should know already from our files. I am Max, Laura's partner in crime." At that point the trio were sure Yuri had died, she wasn't responding to anything.

"That has to be a record, you've seen her a minute and she's already broken," commented Hana laughing, Yuri snapped out of it pretty quickly.

"I saw the name Max and assumed it was another Max."

"How many other people do you know called Max?" asked Max sensibly, 'Max' wasn't exactly a common name.

"Uh… None… But you're four! You can't have passed."

"I'm gifted and I excelled in class, apparently I'm a genius." At this the other two sniggered.

"How do I know it's you," Yuri asked suspiciously. Max sighed and dropped the Henge.

"And I remember your answer to where babies come from if you want I can tell you," smirked Max her eyes lighting up scarily, Yuri paled.

"No I believe you," said Yuri hastily.

"I wanna say anyway for the benefit of the others," said Max the evil glint in her eye.

"As your teacher I'm forbidding you from repeating it."

"But it was funny," whined Max pouting. The others were getting more interested by the second.

"I don't care."

"Well neither do I so I'm saying it anyway. When I first got here with Laura, we were slightly lost and Yuri found us, but we were bored so asked some questions we wanted to know the answers to, like where do babies come form and your answer was mmmmmmm…" Yuri quickly put her hand over Max's mouth. An evil look crossed Yuri's face.

"If you continue then you and your team will be doing D rank missions for three months," Max's eyes widened she ripped the hand away from her mouth.

"You can't, that's….. That's inhuman," cried Max, outraged, never mind she had never done a D rank but from what she had seen they were boring repetitive and complete wastes of time and effort.

"You're not the only one with a sadistic streak. Any way back to business, let's go to the roof," Yuri said before disappearing with an evil smirk. The three looked at each other and shrugged and started their trek up to the roof.

At the roof Yuri was reading a book called 'Teaching immature brats for dummies'. Max could have sworn she'd seent at book on the Hokage's table during her last visit.

"Ok now introduce your selves. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future stuff like that," said Yuri, she didn't particularly want to know, it said most of it on their files, but it was for the benefit of her team.

"You start to show us how it's done," Max demanded.

"My names Hakie Yuri, I like peace and quiet and I dislike smart mouthed brats. My hobbies are reading and sparing with my friends. Dream for the future? No idea, Max you're up." Half of that was a lie but the team wasn't likely to know that.

"I'm Max as you all should know. I like causing mischief, training, sparring with people who don't underestimate me and sparring with Itachi so I can show I can kick his butt any day of the week." Max started.

"Yeah right, I let you win," he scoffed, Max glared at him which he returned turning it into a full out glaring war. Yuri coughed to get their attention and had a slight feeling of deja vu when neither moved to look at her. Hana eventually poked Itachi with enough forced to almost topple him.

"I could own your ass a million times. Anyhow, I dislike; shallow people and may other things but I actually want to get something done so I won't list them. My hobbies include pranking people, reading and training to use my techniques. Dreams for the future; seeing Naruto become Hokage and become a superhero but other than that just enjoy life in general, with loads of excitement," Max declared.

"Dark haired boy."

"My name is Uchiha Itachi; I like my friends, my little brother and training. I dislike people who push people too hard and expect too much of them. My hobbies are training and sparing with Max to train my bloodline and to prove I can kick her ass too. My dream for the future… I haven't thought abut it."

"Last one."

"My names Inuzuka Hana, I like my three dogs, animals and teasing my brother. I dislike people who mistreat animals. My hobbies are learning new medical Justus and training with my dogs. My dream for the future is to become a vet Nin because I love animals, I became I ninja so I could protect animals as well as treat them,"

"Ok… meet at training area thirteen at seven am for survival training, oh and don't eat breakfast or you'll puke," said Yuri. Then she disappeared. Max suddenly burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Itachi.

"Firstly don't eat and survival training don't ever go together, you need energy to survival, no breakfast equals no energy, How stupid does she think we are?" explained Max. "Secondly training ground 13 is an enclosed barren wasteland if we don't eat, we won't survive long," Max carried on, the others nodded in understanding. They got the feeling they didn't want to know how Max knew it was a barren wasteland. "And thirdly it's just plain funny," sniggered Max.

The others looked at her then shrugged, hey it was normal. Max composed herself and they left their separate ways. Max got home and jumped through the window.

Or at least tried to but couldn't since it was shut, growling in annoyance she went to the front door and opened it only to get jumped on by Naruto.

"Who was on your team? Who was your teacher? What's he like? Is he nice?"

"First of my team are Hana and Itachi my teacher is Hakie Yuri, she is nice but kind of hates me because I'm annoying, now my question. Why is the window closed?"

"Uh Laura closed it."

"Gah she knows that window STAYS open. Where is she anyway?"

"She told me not to tell you that she was out doing something but I forgot."

"Ok where's Anko?"

"Seeing some guy?"

"Details?"

"She told me you would ask and told me to say none of your business," grinned Naruto, Max could picture Anko's smirk.

"Meh, if you need me then I'll be in our room installing a ninja flap (a patented cat flap for ninjas so they don't need to open the window) I don't want to be disturbed, I don't need a nail through my hand again," said Max as she headed to her room.

(With Laura)

"I wonder if she's remembered what Monday is, it may be a different universe but it gets celebrated any way," mused Laura as she wandered from shop to shop.


	10. Of Hyuuga's and waterballoons

Laura walked from shop to shop collecting the necessary stuff for her plan. She was making good use of the Henge to get some of the age restricted items (Booze). She seriously hoped Max had remembered, but with Max's 'memory' chances were very slim. Walking out of a shop she almost bumped into a girl, looking down slightly she saw a purple haired girl with lavender eyes and no pupils. This girl fit the description of Hinata that Max had described.

"Are you ok?" asked Laura out of concern. She had always been the one who actually care about kids, Max was indifferent unless she somehow took a special interest, as one of five children she had become indifferent to most kids sob stories.

"No I lost my dad and I can't find him," said the girl, tears forming in her eyes.

"If you want I'll help you find him, by the way I'm Laura, lets go find your father," offered Laura, the girl nodded and taking Laura's hand they proceeded to wander around.

They got through the market place only to get jumped on by a boy of about Laura's age. He was followed by an adult with the same eyes who was looking less than happy.

"Hinata-sama where have you been you've had everyone worried," asked the boy obviously anxious.

"I'm fine, I got found and Laura helped me, Laura this is my cousin Neji," said Hinata smiling happily, Laura bowed respectfully.

"Thank you for helping Hinata, it's nice to meet you," announced the man, Laura shrugged, she would have done it to anyone. After saying goodbye to Hinata she went back to her shopping.

\----

(With Max)

Max was lying on her bed, bored stiff, an idea to train went through her head but she didn't want to be exhausted for tomorrow like she sometimes was. Pranks also came to mind but she'd played quite a few recently, she wanted to unnerve them before her next wave of pranks.

Then it came to her, scaring Jiraiya, she had noticed the white haired pervert around recently. She wandered over to the springs and immediately heard her target's perverted giggle. She crept up behind him, stealth from sneaking around to set pranks came in very handy.

"You spelt caress wrong," commented Max calmly looking over his shoulder, to do so meant she was balanced on a flower pot.

He shot into the air, narrowly missing Max, and into the springs, the female side of the hot springs… However, as luck would have it when he jumped, he dropped his notebook so his masterpiece wasn't destroyed. Max, being 'innocent', looked through and from nowhere she got out a red pen and corrected it. How a native of the language could get this wrong was beyond her. Then she went to hospital and found his room and gave it back, with of course, some pointers for the plot line. Jiraiya had been so happy he had tried to make her his proof reader. Max didn't care, the story wouldn't affect her because of her mental age and she was bored, so she corrected his other chapters but declined any other later offers of proof reading.

Once again the boredom enveloped Max. She grabbed her MP3player and selecting a song she wandered around, thinking about an idea that had been bouncing around in her mind.

She wondered about how Naruto was. Ever since she had started going to the academy he had been more interested in becoming a ninja. It was worrying her, she knew what happened, but she didn't know if she and Laura being here were affecting the timeline.

Her thoughts quickly changed as she noticed the sun had set. She ran home bouncing off roofs only managing to dislodge one tile. No fatality though, all was good.

(The next day)

Max's alarm went off at 6. She got up and ate her breakfast then grabbing her pack she ran out the door, she thought about getting a signature weapon, something people would fear the sight of. She remembered she had tried that with making a technique but FA was more passive than an offensive skill.

Training ground 13 was a gate with a fence surrounding a vast stretch of land to the south of the village, a few trees were visible but it was mostly flat. Itachi was already there leaning against a tree and Hana was on her way. Max jumped into the tree above Itachi silently, and took out a water balloon she carried around just in case. She held it up above where the Uchiha stood. Then she dropped it.

As if in slow motion it fell, the water inside distorting the surface. Then time returned to normal. Direct hit. But something was wrong the area was dry and… oh, there was a log where Itachi was. That couldn't be good. Max felt a presence behind her, she turned. There standing on the branch behind her was a certain Uchiha holding the water balloon.

"Um….. Hi, fancy seeing you here" said Max nervously scratching the back of her head. Itachi smirked and threw the water balloon at her, she dodged and it flew through the air right at Yuri who had just appeared.

"Crap!" Yuri was glaring at her. "It was not me I swear. It was Itachi." Yuri had that look that said 'I don't believe you'. Itachi was laughing at her situation.

"Pull the other leg."

"How could you not believe me? I would never do anything wrong, especially if it was my teacher." By this time Itachi was almost in hysterics, Hana had arrived by now and was utterly confused. But oh well such was the normalicity of being friends with Itachi and Max. There was a thud as Itachi fell out the tree.

"Right you task is to survive for 3 days, each of you will be let in separately, Max since you're…..well, Max. You can go first," said Yuri pointing to the gate. Max jumped out the tree much more gracefully than Itachi.

Taking a step forward she tripped over. Behind her Itachi had discreetly caused her to trip, she could tell it was him, he had that smug grin. Max trudged to the gate and Yuri opened the gate, Max decided to walk really slowly. This was stopped when Yuri planted a foot in her back. Max stumbled through the gate and immediately sat down.

"What are you doing Max?" asked Yuri, her voice dangerously calm.

"You said I had to survive… I feel like surviving here."

"You're supposed to go further in."

"But then I might die."

"That's the point, to see if you survive."

"Oh yeah," said Max as if she had only just realised it. She got up and took a total of three steps then sat down again.

"MAX GET YOUR BUTT IN THERE PROPERLY!" yelled Yuri. Max promptly disappeared in a puff of smoke. Yuri's eye was twitching uncontrollably. Five minutes later Yuri had calmed down.

"Itachi you're next." Itachi got up from the floor and walked calmly through the gate only to trip over some wire. On the ground near by written in dirt was 'paybacks sucks' in Max's scrawl. Itachi got up as if nothing had happened and walked further in disappearing from sight. A few minutes later Hana got up ready to go in with her dogs.

"Hana, you seem reasonable. Why does Max torment me? Why?"

"I don't know but I think Max does this to every one. Maybe it's a sign that she respects you?" said Hana a smile on her face. She walked into the training grounds, the gate slammed shut behind her and a chain was secured.


	11. I'll make a man out of you

Yuri looked at the gate, then the sky.

"It should kick in just about …now," she said to herself, allowing a small grin to show. From inside the fenced area she heard yells.

(With Max)

"Why in Kami's name is everything black!" yelled Max in anger. She checked to see if her eyes were even open, she found that they were in fact open, and it hurt to poke her eyeballs.

"Ok why the hell am I blind." Then it hit her like a twelve ton train. It was part of the test, survive with out one of her senses.

"YURI!" was her anguished roar that echoed through the area. She decide to keep walking, she remembered some trees up ahead so she wouldn't be out in the open. Hoping she was actually heading towards them she set off, taking great care with each step, she wouldn't put it past Yuri to add extra traps.

(With Itachi)

"What the hell, everything's gone quiet…no, not quiet… silent. I can't even here myself," said Itachi, it was a comfort to muse out loud even if he couldn't hear it. After a bit of thinking he saw the ground shake and vibrations in the loose dirt and even a shock wave.

He knew the cause for this. Max. And she was annoyed. In a way he was glad he couldn't hear or his eardrums might be ringing for a while. He came up with the answer for why he couldn't hear. Yuri. It was probably the reason there was a yell. Unlike Max he kept his composure and just carried on like nothing was wrong.

(With Hana)

"…" Hana tried to say.

"…" she tried again.

"…!" her dogs were looking strangely at her. She mused in her head the cause. The only reason could be… Yuri. Not seconds later a yell echoed around the area.

"YURI!" she heard. She knew it was Max, No matter how much Max had tried to sound more mature the four year old still had a cute squeaky voice. From the fact Max could yell showed something else was affected.

(With Yuri)

"YURI!" was heard from where Yuri was standing. Yuri smirked, it was working. As Max would say, payback's a kick in the nutsack.

(Back with Max)

Max was pissed; she had walked into at least five trees before remembering her Fleidermaus Augen (FA). She had then started to hit her head against a tree, berating her own stupidity. This was how Itachi found her five minutes later.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Itachi completely unfazed by her actions.

"I can't see," she mumbled sheepishly.

"I can't hear so can you turn around so I can lip read?" he requested. Max turned around rubbing her now red forehead.

"I can't use my eyes."

"Why don't you use your technique?"

"I realised that five minutes ago, that why I was hitting my head against the tree."

"What did the tree ever do to you?"

"Stood there so I could walk into it." They stood in silence for a bit, not exactly sure what to do next.

"So what shall we do for three days?" Itachi asked.

"I say we sneak out, get pissed and sneak back in, in time to finish."

"Ok now seriously, what should we do?" Max pouted, her idea was a good one.

"Find Hana, she probably has a disability too." Suddenly Max heard a sharp bark. "Scratch that wait for Hana to get here then plan." Itachi looked confused. "I can hear her unlike some people."

"It's not my fault. At least I didn't walk into a tree."

"I didn't trip over my own feet."

"I didn't, you set up that wire." Itachi pointed out.

"You tripped me up first." At this point Hana showed up and tried to get their attention… and failed.

"You made me fall out of the tree." Max giggled a bit at that memory, it wasn't everyday an Uchiha fell out of a tree. Hana also smiled in remembrance.

"How? You fell out."

"You made me laugh too much."

"I was trying to prove my innocence because you threw that water balloon at Yuri and I got blamed," Max said indignantly, the one time she was actually innocent, technically anyway, and she had been held responsible.

"It's your fault for throwing it at me." That was probably why she wasn't completely innocent.

"I didn't throw it I dropped it." Max said innocently, she knew he couldn't hear the tone but it was habit.

"It was still aimed at me."

"And you deserved it."

"How did I deserve it?"

"I forgot the reason," Max said with a cheesy smile. Max noticed Hana standing nearby with her dogs watching them with an amused smile.

"So what's wrong with you? I can't see and Itachi's deaf and stupid," Max said, making sure Itachi couldn't see her lips as she said that. Hana mouthed some words.

"You can't speak. That's ok, Itachi can lip read so he can tell what you're saying then tell me. I just have to use my FA. But I'm still rusty with lip reading." Hana mouthed some more words.

"Hana said 'so what are we doing now?'," said Itachi, dutifully translating.

"I have an idea; we could sneak out and..."

"No! We are not sneaking out to get pissed; you're four, how could you want to get pissed?" Itachi couldn't believe Max some times, her actions didn't match up to her age sometimes.

"Easily, you see I use the grey matter in my head."

"Not what I meant."

"I know," said Max her cheesy grin in place.

The rest of the day went fine they set up a small camp using branches and what supplies they had thought to bring. Max hunted since she had access to most of her senses, Hana went to find water, with her hearing she could easily hear it and Itachi searched for firewood. Max found a couple of small mammals suitable, she gutted them before setting baited traps and taking the good meat back.

Hana had found a stream not to far away and after making sure it was clean, she collected some in an animal skin pouch made for such uses. Itachi had found some dry branches and they ended up pretty comfortable for the night using the animal skin, once it had been cleaned, for a blanket.

The next day passed in a similar way hunting a bit of training and other stuff that needed to be done. Surviving with no other purpose was boring and Max was getting restless.

It was just past midday when Hana was getting more water when she was ambushed by a pack of rabid looking wolves, her dogs were occupied and she had no way of signalling for help because of her lack of voice and the fact she hadn't learnt any big or loud Jutsus having only just become a genin.

Her only options were to fight, run or climb. Since wolves were pretty fast she felt climbing was better and she was outnumbered considerably so fighting would be hard. As fast as she could she ran for the nearest tall tree using chakra to help climb.

She was safe for now but for how long. She looked through her pouch looking for anything to help when she found an object that looked familiar but she couldn't quite place it. Then it hit her, it was Max's flare gun she had been mucking around with it in a lesson and accidentally set it off. There was now a scorch mark above her old seat.

Taking it out, she loaded a new pellet and fired into the air. She hoped they would get there soon because the wolves were starting to try to jump up.

Not to far away Max was practicing tracking when she saw the flare, sort of anyway, using maths (specifically trigonometry, she loathed to admit it was actually helpful) she figured out where it came from and headed in that direction, grateful for some part of her saying Hana wouldn't be able to call for help with no voice. On her way she saw Itachi heading in the same direction. They got to the small group of trees assessing the dangers and seeing the wolves they readied their weapons using hand signs to plan.

In precise movements they sprung from their perches launching their projectiles maiming the wolves only to find them disappear into smoke. Shadow clones. The wolves were quickly disposed of and Hana came back and started to mouth words rapidly, with Itachi repeating them out loud.

"Hana says she was getting water and they came so fast she didn't have time to do anything except run to buy time. She also says thanks for letting her use the flare gun it may have saved her life," said Itachi.

"I'm not stupid enough to let my team mate go of with out some way of alerting us in case of danger," said Max, for once she seemed serious about something, a rare sight.

They headed back to camp and rested, the adrenaline beginning to wear off. The next day came all too soon and they headed towards the gate reaching it just before the deadline. Yuri looked at them with pride.

"You pass! You stayed as a team and made it so even with a disadvantage no teammate was helpless. As of tomorrow team seven are doing missions," said Yuri beaming.

"And to celebrate, I'm inviting you to a celebration from where I come from, the one I told you about not too long ago. That includes you Yuri," said Max. The others split to ask for permission and after getting it they headed towards her flat.


	12. Christmas

Laura had finished decorating the house. She was wondering if Max had remembered Christmas. And whether she had remembered to invite her team. Konoha had a mid-winter festival but it wasn't for at least a month. Max was due back from her three day survival training in about half an hour. Laura had brought Anko and Naruto up to speed on the celebration. They had also brought presents, with the small amount of money they had it may not have been much but to them it meant the world. It showed they cared enough to get presents, and that what mattered.

Naruto was in their room attempting to wrap his presents for the others, it was a novel experience for him, he hadn't received many presents and not really had anyone to give them too. Anko was… who knows where. She had definitely grown fond of them, they had accepted her and it meant a lot. Laura was getting used to a different world but with the help of the others she was doing fine.

Max, well Max they didn't really know, the mask of hyperactivity and laughter hid a lot. Laura knew that for Max, this was a dream come true, she was somewhere she was treated as equal not some geek or freak as she used to be. She had been tormented, and Laura was as well by association, but she had always stood by Max just as Max had done to her.

Only Laura knew the pain Max had felt before they came. She had been the only thing keeping Max sane. In turn Max had helped Laura get over the death of her little brother. Naruto reminded Laura of her brother and she had sworn to herself to keep him safe, she couldn't stand the pain of losing another brother.

The door opened and Anko came in with some bags and headed to her room, nodding her greeting to Laura. Laura finished decorating and put her presents under the tree. Five minutes later Naruto emerged with a small bunch of presents wrapped as best he could. The girl studiously ignored the hints of not quite covered present.

Five minutes before Max was due back Anko added some more presents to the pile under the tree.

Ten minutes later the door opened and Max walked in with Itachi, Hana and Yuri. Each held a bag of wrapped presents and added them.

"Merry Christmas guys," Max mumbled, some unshed tears in her eyes. She had never had a Christmas with friends, her parents had always said it was time to spend with the family but it had always been 'open presents then ignore each other for the rest of the day'. She hugged Laura, who was on the verge of crying too.

"Merry Christmas Max, you deserve it," said Laura, everyone exchanged greetings. Yuri managed to not shudder when she saw Laura. 

Laura brought in the food a bit later, it wasn't a turkey, but it was as good. It was venison, stuffing and gravy, along with other vegetables.

Pudding was the traditional Christmas pudding, Max had henged into someone old enough to by alcohol. It had surprised the others when they lit it on fire, but they enjoyed it. They pulled home made crackers, how Laura and Max knew how to make them would never be known. Everyone ended up wearing silly paper crowns.

Later Laura would tell Max there might have been too much alcohol in the pudding. Max didn't mention how much she had put on in the first place on purpose.

Finally it was presents time. They gathered around the tree and passed out presents. Every so often there would be a squeals of joy and laughter and occasional growl.

At the end of the presents Itachi and Hana had to go home. There were many tears, none of them had had so much fun in ages, Itachi was expected to train most of the time and Hana had to look after many dogs. After they left Yuri had to go as well, she had things she needed to do, but she was grateful for a chance to escape responsibilities even only for a few hours with a bunch of kids.

The four of them were left alone but still had the happiness and they continued to do stuff, Max and Laura taught them party games they had done before. Finally they decided to turn in, Max and Anko would have missions in the morning and Laura had the forensic training she had started. Naruto would go with her and learn stuff; it would help his knowledge for being a ninja later in life.

Anko beat them all to the bathroom so the others were waiting for her.

"Thanks guys today was great, the most fun I've had in ages," said Max hugging Laura and Naruto again. Something she was getting used to again, hugging had never been something she'd done too often.

"Hey we couldn't abandon a tradition could we, and after all we've been through we needed something good," said Laura. In the silence they heard crying from the other side of the door. The door opened and Anko joined the hug, her eyes red and slightly puffy.

"You lot are the best, I wouldn't trade you for the world. You are the first to treat me as human since…" Anko trailed off.

"It's kind of ironic really, a bunch of outcasts and misfits and we become friends and keep each other going," said Laura ruffling up Naruto's hair.

"Hey I'm supposed to say the wise stuff," moaned Max jokingly. They eventually separated and went to bed, emotionally exhausted.


	13. C Rank

(First C rank mission)

Mission: Deliver a scroll to The Kazekage in Suna.

Team seven were standing at the gate waiting for their teacher who had the scroll they were delivering to Suna. as usual Max had set up a trap and as usual Itachi and Hana were taking bets on what would happen. Itachi reckoned it would misfire while Hana said it would backfire.

Five minutes later Yuri turned up right where Max predicted. The other two waited with baited breath, there was a small clunk as a bucket fell of the top of the gate but as it was falling a great distance Yuri had time to dodge or use replacement… with Max.

As Itachi handed over the money Max removed the bucket and threw it at the other two skilfully as they were exchanging the money, the bucket caught the money and then returned to Max via ninja wire. The two watched the path of the bucket and money to find Max smirking counting the money. Max had planned more that they had thought, had she actually though it would work the bucket would have been full of some sticky mess.

They finally started their journey, walking down the main path chatting. Max had her eyes were closed and she was using FA to see what was going on around her, stopping random projectiles thrown at her to keep her on her toes.

Half a day into the trip Hana's dogs started to act strange. Each of the shinobi tensed ready for fight or flight, recognising the signs of an uncertain shinobi nearby. They weren't disappointed a small barrage of weapons flew out from the bushes. Each of the group dodged or blocked them sometimes returning them to their source.

When it stopped the hazy scene from the dust that had been disturbed fell back to earth. A silhouette in a stance stood ahead of them a large sword visible on his back. Max's mind went into overdrive only two people she knew of had a massive sword and chances were she wouldn't stand a chance without some creative thinking.

"Who are you?" asked Max peering into the dust. Itachi facepalmed, did Max really expect an answer?

"Why should I tell you my name if you're only going to die?" The voice was familiar and Max was glad she had watched the Japanese versions or she wouldn't be able to match the voice.

"Ah, Kisame" smirked Max to the surprise of… well everyone.

"I don't believe we've met. How do you know me not by sight?" This struck a thought with Max who smacked her forehead with her hand.

"I can't believe I forgot I could have used it to see who you were, man I can be stupid," exclaimed Max. The others groaned, Max was being loud. Max was just pissed she could have used FA.

"That doesn't explain how you know me."

"Yeah like I'm gonna tell you," mocked Max.

"Max shut up before you get yourself and the rest of us killed," hissed Hana.

"Since when has that stopped me," Max hissed back. That was true, Max didn't have much of a survival instinct.

"Ah, so you name is Max, I'll be sure to remember that as I kill you," said Kisame, his figure still covered by the dust but it was slowly fading until they could see him in his blueness. Yuri's eyes widened in recognition fro the bingo book.

"Get out of here I'll keep him occupied." She knew she had little chance but her team was priority, at least Itachi had the scroll so the mission could still be completed.

"As if, we've just got to find his weakness," Max said, the gravity of the situation hadn't sunk in and Yuri was tempted to forcefully smash it in. There was a chuckle from Kisame.

"Weakness… I'm one of the best I don't have a weakness."

"Sure you do everyone has a weakness. I'm assuming you're element of choice is water, so let's think pokemon weaknesses. Fire… nope, water trumps fire… Earth… no, that just makes mud… Air… no, makes ice which is pointy but could be used to stop an attack or slow it… lightning… I suppose but only if it's connected to the person," mused Max muttering as her mind worked things out. "Does anyone have a lightning based jutsu?" asked Max looking at her team mates who all shook their heads.

While Yuri did have a few they were short range and she knew Samehada would stop her from getting close enough to use them.

"Ok … I say we scram!" The four of them ran or at least Max tried to but she hadn't seen the sliver of water wrapped around her ankle.

"I want to talk to you. You seem to be very knowledgeable. How? And I'm not letting you go until you tell me."

"Aww Kami's nutsack, but I need to go. My mother told me not to talk to strangers or blue people that resemble fish or sushi, and I have stuff I need to do. I need to feed some fish and set up a barbeque to fry some fish, go shopping to get the fish go back home to realize I shouldn't have left the barbeque on fire, put out the fire and other stuff." Max rambled. The rest of her team watched from a safe distance, well hidden.

"Just answer my question squirt."

"Eureka! I've just had a brainwave, if I don't know any lightning jutsu but I do know how natural lightning is made and I can use my chakra to make the conditions for it. It's bound to work then all I have to do is get him to raise his sword then tada instant lightning rod. Ok I'm done thinking. Get ready to become barbeque!"

"But you already said fire wont work and you have no lightning jutsu." Kisame was thoroughly confused by Max, he wasn't the only one, Max's team were also puzzling over her actions.

"Stupid fish." Max put her hands together in a hand seal and channelled her chakra into changing the air and atmosphere to perfect conditions for lightning, it wasn't long before rain fell and this is where Kisame started to panic. No genin was this stupid to give him his element, unless they had some other plan. He raised his sword for a clean swipe. When the sword was raised up high, Max separated her hands jumping out of the waters relaxed grasp and a bolt of lightning flashed through the air to the tallest object… Samehada.

This caused several things. One: Max collapsed from the amount of chakra used. Two: Kisame collapsed from the amount of electricity coursing through his body. Three: Samehada fused to Kisame hand. And finally: team seven came into the area only to recoil from the pungent smell of cooked fish. They decided it was safer to leave Kisame but to add to the fact he had been beaten Hana had sprinkled some seasoning over him with some lemon and a note that said 'next time its sushi'. She figured Max would get the blame.

So they continued to Suna, Itachi was carrying Max because he was stronger and Yuri told him to. Max hadn't been helping, she kept rambling on about cooked fish and at one point tried to eat Itachi. He had not been impressed and Max was highly embarrassed when she woke up mid bite. Hana and Yuri found it very amusing.

They got to Suna and delivered the message to the Kazekage. The had been told to hang around for a reply so they did, all three genin eager to explore their new surroundings.

Max was waking to the nearest place that sold sushi because she was hungry and fish would make her feel better. After she got her sushi-to-go she wandered around, forming a map of her surroundings. Up ahead she noticed some kids playing with a ball and there was a redhead nearby but the kids were avoiding him. Something about it sparked a memory in Max's head. Then it hit her…GAARA. The adorable kid with red hair was Gaara.

The ball the kids were playing with got stuck on top of a wall. Then sand brought it down. At this point Max made herself known stepping forward to catch the ball as it slipped, she threw it at the kids who saw Gaara and ran. Gaara's sand raced to grab one to get them to stay. It almost killed Max to see this, the rejection, but inside her determination grew. She walked over to him, making it obvious in her body language that she wouldn't hurt him.

"Hi! What's your name?" asked Max, even though she knew his name she had no reason to.

"Gaara."

"I'm Max, nice to meet you," said Max cheerfully. Behind her one of the kids saw her and decided to warn her of the 'demon'.

"I wouldn't hang around with him, he's a demon, he kills people," advised the kid.

"So do I, do you have a problem with that?"

"You're a ninja that's different, he's a demon," insisted the kid. Max really didn't see how it was different.

"And you're less than the mud on my shoes. That makes him better than you," retorted Max. Gaara looked stunned and Max's thoughts were 'do I have this affect on everyone I make friends with'. The answer of course was yes, she knew what they felt and could empathise.

"He's probably put you under a curse," the kid decided.

"I'm a ninja. He couldn't even if he tried."

"Fine but don't come running when he tries to kill you." Max only rolled her eyes, stupid child.

"Hey don't you roll your eyes at me!"

"I'll roll them at who ever I damn want to," Max hissed. The kid stalked off in a mood.

"Why did you stick up for me?" Gaara asked after a Max tossed the abandoned ball to him.

"You aren't a demon. You have a demon in you but it's not your fault. You had no choice but you still carry on living, it shows you're strong even if the seal isn't. Besides you aren't my only friend with a small friend," said Max.

"Does that mean were friends?" asked Gaara shyly. Max hugged him, while Gaara looked uncertain.

"Sure but I wont get to see you often. I have to go soon and I have to be leaving first thing in the morning by the east gate. But before I go now I have some advice. First: no matter what happens, move on, don't let it get to you. Second: your sand won't protect you forever so spread your skills and third: don't ever think you're alone, you'll never be alone," said Max. She was inwardly thinking 'damn I have a problem with random wise moments'.

The next morning Max and the rest of team seven were just walking out the gate when they heard someone call out to them. They stopped to see Gaara running towards them. He leapt at Max to hug her much to everyone's surprise. After a brief introduction of the rest of her team they exchanged another hug before team seven departed, Gaara waving until they were out of sight.

"You have another friend, do you collect them or something," asked Hana jokingly.

"No, I just have a great way with kids."

"How may time must I say this: you are a kid."

"I know but I'm more mature than a kid." To their credit Hana and Itachi kept their composure for about a minute before laughing.

"Stop squabbling," snapped Yuri.

"This isn't squabbling, this is a creative argument," said Max. Yuri just groaned as they headed back to Konoha.

They reported to the Hokage and got their mission pay. Max got a lecture on reasons pissing of a missing nin is not wise and also a congratulations on quick thinking. She headed home to get jumped on by Naruto and Laura and later by Anko who was a bit annoyed that she had missed the sight of a massive fried fish.

Later that night Max sat on the window sill staring at the moon. It was a source of comfort, the moon was a constant, even when constellations changed around with the seasons, the moon only changed its phases, always being there no matter how far from home she was.


	14. Chunin Exams part 1

(One month later)

Team seven were at their normal meeting point waiting for Yuri. As usual Max had set up a trap and as usual Itachi and Hana were betting on how it would go wrong.

This was an hour ago.

Max had then added stuff to the trap and Itachi and Hana were criticising its worth and getting abuse because of their suggestions.

This was half an hour ago.

Currently Max was mucking around with her latest technique named Feuer Asche or her other version Incendio Cenere. They were basically the same but two different styles of fighting, IC being close range and FAc a mid range style. Laura had told her not to bother naming them as she'd only forget but Max liked naming her techniques.

They were just where Max gave of small amounts of chakra and used it to change elements around her into a very flammable hydrocarbon like methane or propane. Then using an idea from Fullmetal Alchemist she would snap her fingers and from the increased friction courtesy of chakra she would set her hand alight.

To control the flame she would just control the amount of chakra and the direction it was being forced to go. Her first problem had been how to stop her hand getting burnt.

The first time she had tried it she had burnt her right hand and most of her arm, but then she had a brain wave and coat most of her arm and hand in a mud armour jutsu she had 'asked' coughblackmailedcough Yuri to teach her. And that is how her newest technique was born, and how she was now seeing how far she could get it to reach. Her poor team mates were used as target practice.

(An hour later)

"I'm bored," moaned Max, she snapped her fingers to create a flame that swirled around her mud encrusted arm. She was now just working on how well she could control the flames.

"We noticed," grumbled Itachi, he was mourning the loss of a single strand of his hair which Max had managed to hit when she had sneezed while mucking around with a flame. Hana was so far unscathed. For how long no one knew. Her dogs were hiding behind trees to escape the chance of being hit.

"Good morning team, I'm sorry I'm late but I had a meeting," Yuri said, stepping to one side as a bucket of liquid fell and watching in amusement as the liquid caught fire as Max aimed her flames at it.

"Whatever," Max grumbled as she saw her plan thwarted and money exchanging hand between Itachi and Hana. All of them were moaning about having to hang around for two hours doing nothing.

"I have for you bunch of ingrates three forms to enter the chunin exams in a weeks time. It's going to be held at the Hidden Mist due to our new treaty with them." At this all three kids stopped moaning about her lateness and moved closer to hear the but... "But I'm not sure I should give them to you. I don't know if you can handle it," Yuri said but after seeing the killer intent she quickly handed them out.

"For today we will be sparring. Taijutsu only, Max and Hana, winner verses Itachi. For the moment Itachi can practise chakra control on the river." The trio quickly got to work.

By the end of the day they were all exhausted each having learnt the basics of a new jutsu to try to improve by the chunin exam which they would leave for in five days. This meant the next four days would be independent study and practice. Max knew Yuri just wanted to skive off teaching.

Laura was a bit sceptical about the chunin exams

"Let me get this straight you're taking part in an exam that you could die in or be crippled for life and you think it's a good idea. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND! You're four years old… FOUR!"

Ok maybe more than a bit more like extremely sceptical.

"Probably but its going to be awesome," said Max completely oblivious to Laura's rage. Anko walked into the room and ruffled Max's hair.

"I herd your going for the chunin exam. Good luck. I hope you don't die," said Anko who was fondly remembering her own chunin exams, she had passed on her third try and recalled how much fun they were.

"Stop encouraging her!" yelled Laura.

"I'm sorry if you aren't intimidating at all. I only tend to be afraid of people who can kick my ass," teased Anko. Just then Naruto bounded in.

"You're taking the chunin exams! Cool! Then you can be stronger and teach me stuff and go on cool missions and stuff." A vein appeared on Laura's head.

"Does anyone not think she should take part?" Laura asked, her eyebrow twitching slightly.

"Nope!" smiled Max grinning at the eyebrow that was twitching so much it was just a blur and the vein that was so close to exploding.

"Fine! I give up but if you die and I'm going to piss on your grave!"

"Ok," said Max. If she died then it would be deserved.

(Five days later)

"Ok, we're all here so let's go," announced Hana as the headed toward the gate. Thus they started their 13 hour journey to the Mist village. It started pretty much the same as most of their trips. Max would use FA to doge projectile thrown by her team mates and return fire. Itachi would use a few fire jutsu as well and Hana would throw in a few attacks by her dogs. Every few hours they would switch and Max would use either IC or FAc on the target.

Six hours into the journey they came across a shinobi returning to mist from a mission who they decided to travel with.

"So you're Zabuza, aren't you one of the seven swords men of the mist?" asked Hana. Max was also curious because of the wave arc from the Naruto series. Maybe she could at least make an acquaintance now, it could be useful later if the wave arc still happened.

"Yes." Zabuza wasn't a man of many words, not with the swordsmen's plan in the working. Loose lips sink ships.

"Cool I don't think I could ever be good with a sword to that kind of level. I suck with a sword," said Max innocently, a discreet Henge to make her look more childlike helped. Yuri immediately recognised this. It meant if the person was gullible then Max would learn something new. It had worked on her enough times to tell.

"Hmmm. Can I see your beginning stance," asked Zabuza, the journey was going to be a while, he might as well do something constructive. 'Hook, line and sinker' thought Max with a grin as she got into her stance. Zabuza gave her some quick pointers and suggested if she did carry on with a sword then she would need to practice and find a lighter sword. The one she had was a bit heavy and long for her.

A couple of hours later and they arrived and Zabuza took them to the Mizukage so they he could be informed of their arrival and they could get some accommodation. They had a day to relax before the first part. So the kids spent that time familiarising themselves with the village.

(Day of the exam)

"Max, get your arse out of bed before I torch it," declared Itachi pulling of the blanket which took Max with it and she was dumped ungracefully on the floor.

"I'm out of bed so leave me alone," she grumbled from under her blanket.

"Get UP!" Itachi punctuated the last word with a bucket of ice cold water he had taken into the room with him. Max shot up and started the seals for her mud guard so she could use IC. But she was stopped when she saw the time. It was midday.

"Why didn't you tell me it was this late?" she exclaimed trying to push him out of the room.

"I tried but you got violent." He was reluctant to leave in case she just went back to bed.

"Oops, my bad... Ok I'll get up but first you have to go away," she said. Itachi obliged and left the room. Max grabbed a quick shower and put on her clothes and weapons and met with her team in the main area of their rooms. Together they headed to the Mist academy where the first stage was being held. Max moved her head band so it was covering her eyes and activated FA.

From what she had seen in Naruto there might be a small test before mainly a genjutsu. Thus by using FA it would be useless as it could see though illusions since illusions weren't solid therefore they didn't' reflect the chakra. Itachi and Hana noticed this and went on their guard in case.

Outside the door to the classroom everything suddenly went black for Itachi and Hana and her dogs. It looked like all the light had been sucked out of there vision. Max saw three ninja of at least chunin from Mist approaching and got into a battle stance, she could hear Hana's dogs growling, they could obviously smell or hear them. She also tapped three times to alert her team mates to the possible hostiles. The chunin ninjas attacked only to be surprised as the trio blocked their attacks. The world regained colour as the genjutsu was dispelled by the three of them.

"Are you sure you want to take part in the chunin exams, they're not for the young, weak kids like you. People die," said one of the chunin.

"Others lose the will to live," another chunin chipped in.

"Who the hell do you think you are, my mother?" asked Max sarcastically.

"We made our choice when we started our journey," added Itachi.

"No person can change our minds," said Hana adding her two cents. With that the three ninjas disappeared and the door opened allowing them in.

Inside they saw what seemed like hundreds of people ranging from age 9 to about 17. They felt the eyes of most of the occupants in the room focus on them. Whispers flitted around the room.

"Are they really entering the exam?"

"They're so small."

"Maybe they're lost."

"They can't be older than 7."

"Aww, they're so cute."

"They have leaf headbands so they must be genin but they look too small."

"We are entering the exams. Size means nothing if you've got skill and nor does age so shut up," yelled Max making everyone stared at them. Silence reigned. Crickets chirped. "Don't you have something else to do?" said Max, her left eye was twitching dangerously.

"Yes, but watching you yell is funny. It just makes people wonder how 'skilled' you are," said some random genin. Max turned to him and directed a glare at him.

"I have more skill in this finger than you'll ever have," Max boosted holding up her middle finger in an offensive way.

"Shame it's so small I can't see it," countered the genin, ripples of laughter came from some of the shinobi.

"I bet your girlfriend says the same about about parts of you," returned Max smirking. She was not going to go down in a verbal battle.

"For a child you have a twisted mind."

"That only one of the things I specialize in. I also use sarcasm and verbal abuse coupled with obscenities for no additional charge. I bet you have no specialty, probably not even any skill."

"How about I show just how much skill I have?" The shinobi rushed at Max aiming a punch but missing as Max leaned out of the way. He aimed punch after punch, kick after kick but they all missed as she danced around them barely moving her feet.

"Stop fighting or you will be failed," the commanding voice of the first examiner rung through the room as the shinobi attacking Max froze. "Everyone listen up, hand in your forms, take a number and sit. In silence!"

Everyone did so and took a seat corresponding to their number. Luck would have it Max was stuck next to the genin who she had fought with and a boy whose finger was currently up his nose. Itachi was next to the one who had called them cute. And Hana was next to some kid with slime in his hair and a girl who was putting on make up.

"This part of the exam will be a written exam you will have twenty questions, each question is worth two points so you can have a total of forty points. If you get zero points you automatically fail and if one of your team fails then so does your whole team." Whisper broke out some in protest over the rules.

"SILENCE. There will be no talking and any one caught cheating will have 10 points of their total. So you can fail before you even finish this section." A group of chunin materialised in chairs around the room.

"Any questions. No? Good. You have 1 hour to complete the paper by the instructions. You may turn over your paper and begin, any further instructions are on the paper."

There was a rustle of paper as everyone turned over their paper, Max picked up her paper and read the instructions and promptly started to bang her head against the table gathering the entire rooms attention. Upon noticing who it was most of them went back to work. Max remembered back to one of her school years when she had fallen for this trick. Itachi and Hana both had realised something was wrong and read though the questions first. A bunch of other shinobi did too.

Instructions

Read through all the questions before answering them

Q1. A ninja is a crouched on a 57.46m high building and jumps. Falling at an average speed of 7.5m/s how long does the ninja have to react to land safely?

Questions continue… (Random elevator music)

Q20. What is the first thing a ninja must do when infiltrating a building?

End of questions

Do not write any of the answers

Any ninja who answered the questions before reading the paper as per instructions have failed.

Several teams failed by getting caught cheating. Max was doodling of a scrap sheet of paper meant for working on and pitying anyone who decided to copy her. About half an hour later she had finished her crude sketch of the boy next to her hanging from a tree by his underpants in a massive wedgie. Itachi had been interested in what Max was drawing and decided to copy her movements to find out. He was trying to suppress his laughter as he saw the finished product. Hana was playing a couple of games of hangman or noughts and crosses with her dogs.

3 minutes before the end of the hour Max noticed the time and randomly started humming the Final Countdown. Just as she finished the examiner stood up.

"Stop writing and put your pencils down." Just as people did some of the pencils and paper exploded in smoke and anyone covered in smoke also got covered in a dye. "Anyone whose paper exploded fails."

"WHAT! Why?" The cries from around the room combined made the ceiling tiles shake a little.

"Because you failed to follow the instructions. Any ninja who failed please leave and take your team mates." Most of the failed teams left, admitting they had failed but some kicked up a fuss.

"How were we supposed to know not to answer the questions?"

"If you had followed the instructions you should have known," the instructor said.

"It shouldn't have been so challenging!"

"This is the chunin exams it's supposed to be challenging." Max called out from her seat. The kid stormed of followed by the rest of the failures. To Max's dismay the kid next to her had passed but the kid with nose picking habits had gone.

A window smashed and the rock hit the examiner, everyone was sat expectant of something. But all they heard was a muffled "Sorry." from outside.

Five minutes later the door opened and a man walked in carrying a bulging sack over his shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to deal with something. Now for the second part of the exam you will need to get to a point marked on a map that will be given to each group. You will need to be there by 12:00 pm or you will not be able to partake in this section and will fail," said the man producing a stack of paper. One person from each team took one and they were dismissed.

(At the hotel/apartment/thingy where they live)

"That exam was boring," Max sighed, she was trying to dry out the blanket from earlier.

"I swear you think everything is boring."

"If you don't remember, my dream for the future was an action packed one," Max reminded them, she gave up on drying the blanket and swapped it with Itachi's, he deserved it.

"I suppose anyway we should look at the map to decide on our route," Hana suggested, being the sensible one and trying to avoid the possible argument over the blanket. Itachi had just swapped the blanket back.

"Yeah. I probably will be half asleep tomorrow so now would be best," agreed Max. Yuri walked in as Max switched the blanket again.

"You guys passed the first part! Don't forget it will only get harder."

"I wouldn't have it any other way!" Max exclaimed. She grabbed the dry blanket as Itachi tried to take it. "Mine!"

"You stole it from me."

"You soaked mine!"

"Share the damn thing or I'll take it," Yuri threatened. Both genin stopped their tugging and looked at each other. Max sharply tugged the blanket out of his hands, she dived on to her bed and was nestled up by the time the blanket settled on top of her. She did leave some of it for Itachi if he didn't mind sharing.

Looking at Yuri he opened his mouth to protest and suggest Hana share with Max.

"You soaked her blanket," Yuri said. Itachi sighed and slipped under the blanket as far away from Max as possible while still being under the blanket. Hana got into her own bed, giggling slightly. Only once they were all sorted did Yuri leave.

Not long later Itachi found himself no longer covered by the blanket, there still was some spare blanket for him, just not as much.

It was cold here in Mist, he had one option and he was going to take it. He was an Uchiha, he was not afraid of sharing a blanket with his slightly crazy team mate. Steeling himself he scooted closed to Max and drew the blanket over himself, his back against hers.

Yuri looked through the window and smiled at the two. They had the potential to be a truly great team, they just needed to realise it.


	15. Chunin Exams part 2

Team seven completed the second part of the exam on day two out of the five they had been given. None of them had life threatening injuries from the fight with a team from waterfall ninjas Max had baited into a fight. They were however covered in a layer of mud with leaves and vines stuck in. Max decided that she hated jungles. The worst injury was a black eye Max had received when she pissed of one of the ninjas to much.

The waterfall ninja had forgotten he had a bladed weapon in his left hand and punched her with his right fist. Then he promptly had his arse handed to him by Max while his team mates were beaten by her team and then they stole their map so they would get lost and not make it to the objective.

They had just got to the small compound in the centre and were greeted by Yuri who groaned at the sight of them.

"I was hoping you wouldn't have passed yet, it was so peaceful. I didn't have to be careful of traps," moaned Yuri before turning more serious. "But I'm glad you passed this part because then you might pass the last part and I won't have to deal with your pranks!"

"Don't you love us any more?" asked Max pouting.

"Nope," Yuri said bluntly, the others just laughed.

"You have three days until the end of this part of the test, don't cause trouble or pick fight. Yes, that means you Max." Max pouted innocently.

"But you love me really," said Max grinning. Yuri just disappeared, the trio made their way to where they would be staying, Max and Hana were sharing and Itachi across the hallway. He was glad he'd be able to have his own bed again, he did not want a repeat of sharing with Max. Hana was not going to let them live it down. He was an Uchiha, Uchiha's don't snuggle!

The next day was pretty boring, they only had seen five other teams in the compound out of about sixteen that had passed the first exam. The five teams over the course of the day had been bombarded by pranks and traps Max had spent most of her time setting up.

On the fifth day they were all summoned to a small theatre type thing that reminded Max of The Globe Theatre in London. Max smiled in fond remembrance of a school trip to the Globe back in her old universe, she, Laura and her other friend had managed to sneak away from the teacher and check out the whole place, not just the place their teacher was showing them. Behind the stage was a board that was currently blank.

A quick glace around showed there were two Leaf teams, a Mist team, a Sand team, a Waterfall team and a Rock team.

The Mizukage gave them a speech on something, if Max didn't know better she'd believe that the Kage's gave the exact same speech word for word.

"Due to the fact the number of competitors for the exams is in double figures there will be preliminary matches. The rules are simple, one on one battle, the match is finished when I say of one of the competitors concedes defeat," announced the woman who obviously was in charge of this section of the exam. The board came to life and a pair of names came up.

Tarou - Sand

Vs.

Moriko - Mist

Team seven watched as a Sand nin and a Mist nin entered the pit where if it had been a theatre the poor people would have stood. Everyone else moved to the stands to watch. It was a good way of gauging skill level for the finals.

"Begin," announced the woman and the two boys advanced, by the looks of it they both specialised in taijutsu. The Sand nin stuck first, quickly and accurately aiming for an easy win by knocking out his opponent quickly. The Mist nin blocked and using the momentum he threw the Sand nin towards the spectators, from then on it was little more than a blur.

Five minutes later the Mist nin won as Tarou got knocked out by a blow to the side of the head just below the ear where the skull was thin.

"Winner: Moriko."

Michi - Mist

Vs.

Izumo – Leaf

This fight was short and sweet as Izumo got a lucky hit when Michi miscalculated a shot.

"Winner: Izumo."

Itachi - Leaf

Vs.

Sayuri - Mist

Itachi jumped down followed by the girl who looked about fifteen.

"Why don't you bow out now save yourself some embarrassment," she taunted. Itachi only looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

"In a true battle, bowing out is not an option so why make it a habit when it isn't."

From the observation area Max sighed and Hana shook her head.

"Damn, I may have corrupted him with my random spurts of wisdom." Nevertheless the battle was also fairly short and from Sayuri's point of view embarrassing, in the most intense moments Itachi awoke his Sharingan with two tomoe in each eye. Max was going to be careful with her techniques now.

"Winner: Itachi."

Yoshi - Waterfall

Vs.

Hana - Leaf

Hana's opponent never stood a chance. Turns out as a child a dog had attacked him and he was scared of them since.

"Winner: Hana."

Kohaku - Sand

Vs.

Maxine - Leaf

Max watched her opponent jump down and so walked slowly down, planning to rile up her opponent before the match even started.

"Come on I haven't got all day," yelled Kohaku, Max stopped and glared at him and he felt someone tap on his shoulder. Looking behind him he saw her standing there with a grin on her face, he quickly looked back to find no one was waking down the stairs.

"But I'm already here why do I need to hurry," said Max as she walked to face him on the other side of the pit. Max readied herself and felt butterflies in her stomach. She hated doing anything in front of people if it was important like her part of a speaking exam or giving a presentation.

Calming her thoughts she focused on all the things she had succeeded in. If she could do all that then she could do this.

"Begin." Max heard the words and didn't react, it was as if she had frozen. She hadn't, she was waiting. On the observation areas she could hear Hana and Itachi making bets with some of the other genin. Kohaku stood impatiently waiting for her to attack. His temper was getting shorter and shorter until he snapped.

"Attack already!"

"Oh, you want me to attack. I thought you would since you were so impatient to begin with." Kohaku ran at her throwing shuriken and kunai. Max moved to the side lightly as if she were dancing. The only thing going through her head was the song, 'Not Listening' by Papa Roach.

Kohaku had reached her and started hand to hand combat. Max dodged and blocked to the beat of the music, placing a few blows when she had an opening. It wasn't as fast as the first match but it was still fast.

Suddenly Kohaku threw a hand full of sand from his pouch directly into her face some getting into her eyes effectively blinding her. Kohaku smirked; most ninjas were useless without sight. Max jumped back and rubbed at her eyes. But she found it to be useless and was only irritating her eyes more, sighing she removed her headband and tied it over her eyes and activated FA.

This confused Kohaku since activating FA wasn't obvious, but he attacked her anyway but found all his attacks were still blocked. Seeing that it wasn't going to work in close combat he moved back and Max mirrored his movement. He made some hand signs and a tornado formed in the middle of the floor and started to move towards Max thinking she wouldn't see it coming because she couldn't see.

"Tornado blades!" yelled Kohaku and the tornado started to grow tentacles type things that shot towards her. At the last second Max switched with a wooden block which was torn to shreds. Kohaku looked around for Max thinking she had chickened out.

Up in the observation block most of the genin were smirking thinking they had just won the bet but Itachi and Hana knew differently.

"MAX STOP PLAYING AROUND!" yelled Hana.

"Ok," was the reply, everyone saw Max do some hand seals all waiting in anticipation only to find it only covered Max's arms in mud. A defensive move. Now only Itachi and Hana were waiting in anticipation the others just thought she was slightly mad. Maybe it was because she couldn't see what she was doing.

"Feuer Asche," she called just to show off, to be honest she could have said anything and it would have made the same amount of sense. She snapped her fingers causing a spark that set her hand alight. She placed her other hand above it and moved it back and started to give of ethane gas.

Moving her hand in a swift movement over her first hand the gas set alight and due to the direction of her moving hand the flames followed that path propelled by the gas. Directly at Kohaku.

Max could have done this faster but she thought it was funny to confuse people and get them wondering about how she did it while being 'blind'.

The flames shot through the air in a long stream. Kohaku moved just before it hit him only to find Max using a similar method to throw disks of fire at him. He ran around dodging them.

Then suddenly they stopped. Max looked at her hands wondering why it wasn't working then realised she wasn't even using her eyes so why was she moving her head.

This gave Kohaku an opportunity to retaliate. He threw some shuriken at her, which she deflected with a quickly withdrawn kunai, Kohaku realised he had to finish this soon because he was getting tired and the tornado had used most of his chakra.

He launched another barrage of weapons and ran forwards creating some clones they all attacked at the same time pushing Max back.

Max retaliated by putting a fistful of flames through the clones, she swiped at Kohaku who ducked only to have his feet taken out by what looked like his own clone much to everyone's surprise.

No one had noticed her make her own clone when Kohaku had made his, she just had made it do Henge to look like him. The clone and Max attacked coordinating their attacks. The clone got Kohaku onto the floor and held his arms while Max held a kunai to his throat.

"Do you yield?" Max said moving the blade so it was touching skin. There was no response so she pressed harder, a line of red appeared as the kunai broke skin.

"Yes I yield," said Kohaku.

"Winner: Max."

Kotetsu - Leaf

Vs.

Osamu - Rock

Winner: Kotetsu

Saki - Leaf

Vs.

Itsuki - Rock

Winner: Itsuki

Ryou - Sand

Vs.

Takashi - Waterfall

Winner: Ryou

Makoto - Rock

vs

Miku - Waterfall

Winner: none double knock out

"Congratulations to those who are through to the next round. You have that month to prepare and are expected at 12:00 on the first day of next month at. If you'll all pick a number to decide the final battles," announced the examiner. Each of the winners picked a ball from the bag offered and called out their numbers

"The final matches will be: Kotetsu vs. Hana. Itsuki vs. Max. Itachi vs. Izumo. Moriko vs. Ryou. Winner advances"

"Does that mean only one person will become chunin?" asked Moriko.

"No, each match will be a chance to show of your skill to persuade the judges that you have what it takes to be chunin. So all of you could pass or none of you could pass," explained the examiner. They were dismissed and the trio went back to their accommodation to find a note from Yuri.

Team seven

I'll be back later.

Decide on what you want to work on for the finals.

I will teach you one skill so chose wisely.

Yuri

"How does she know we passed, I didn't see her," said Max.

"Maybe she has faith in us…" suggested Hana. Max laughed at that.

"Or was being optimistic that if we passed she wouldn't have to see us every day," added Itachi.

"Probably," the two girls agreed. They started thinking about the next month. Max had already decided on what she wanted to learn.


	16. Chunin Exams part 3 round 1

It was three weeks after the preliminary round and the trio were training hard, Hana had chosen to learn some better Taijutsu so she wouldn't have to completely rely on her dogs. Itachi had wanted to learn some genjutsu. And Max had wanted to learn summoning for her guns. It was a week and a bit until the finals and for most of the three weeks, Yuri had been no where to be seen.

Max was in a seclude area she had found and was practicing summoning, she had found out how to summon different styles of guns but at the moment her favourites was the P-90. It was her secret weapon as no one in the ninja world had heard of a fire arm or a gun or similar. She was glad about chakra, using it she could absorb the recoil from the weapon and wield two with her abnormal strength.

"Summoning jutsu twin P-90 style" she whispered. During the three weeks she had been musing about why they yell their jutsu because it alerts the enemies to what's being used. She had also found when she summons a weapon, two clips get summoned too and it unsummoned itself when she ran out of bullets or when she sent it back. Due to this, she could keep one for an indefinite period of time, so had a Desert Eagle hidden under genjutsu as a very last resort.

Max unsummoned both P-90s and took a few steps back. Biting her finger she ran forward and after doing the hand signs she executed a tight flip, summoning the weapons and grabbing them on her way up. She aimed for the target with both and fired. Of course she missed due to the fact Hana had appeared behind her and tapped her shoulder.

"What is that thing?" Hana asked reaching for it.

"My secret weapon," smirked Max keeping it just out of her reach, flicking on the safety just in case. Itachi being taller with longer arms reached it any way and tugged it out of her hands. Or tried to as Max had pulled it down and Hana had followed but when Max had pulled it up her hand slipped and Max unsummoned it quickly.

"Come on friends don't keep secrets," Hana said pouting.

"Friends can easily become enemies, anyway the less people who know the more of a surprise it'll be when I kill them," Max said simply then disappeared in a puff of smoke. At the whole groups insistence Yuri had taught them the shushin jutsu.

(One week later)

Walking down the street Itachi was just minding his own business when he felt someone approaching him. Looking in the reflection of a shop window he saw his little brother running towards him. He groaned and turned to see further down the street were his parents.

Sasuke tripped over one of the uneven cobbles and, reacting on instinct, Itachi ran and caught him before he hit the floor, and then he groaned again. Now there was no escaping his parents.

He was wondering if he could make a clone and Henge it so it looked similar to him and pretend its just some one who looks like him but it was too late they had seen him.

"Hello father, mother, Sasuke. I didn't know you were coming," he said wishing he was anywhere but there.

"We couldn't really miss you first chunin exam as it will probably be your only one," his mother reasoned.

"You are the genius child, remember, it's your duty to represent the clan in a good light," his father reminded him. Itachi was desperately wishing for a distraction.

"Hi guys," said Max as she jumped down from a building. Itachi was thanking every mystical being he knew.

"You're Max right?" questioned Itachi's father, looking critically at the girl.

"Yup, that me." Max had obviously found a coffee place of some sort as she was bouncing on the spot.

"Are you taking part in the third part?" Itachi's father asked. He hadn't actually looked much into Itachi's team, deeming them as inferior shinobi who would hold back the Uchiha prodigy.

"Also correct."

"Aren't you one of those four girls who live with that Uzumaki Brat?" Itachi's mother asked curiously. Itachi's father narrowed his eyes at Max trying to make that connection. Max thought for a few seconds, 'four girls?' there were only three living with Naruto. Then Max realised her other identity counted as another one as she often forgot she had her henge up. Laura had actually encouraged it as people were dissuaded by another shinobi living there.

"What of it?" In those three words Max had turned from high above the clouds mood to dangerous. Itachi knew that when Max was in that mood she probably could take out an army if someone said something wrong now. Itachi's father wasn't exactly tactful so Itachi could see this meeting going horribly wrong it it lasted much longer.

"Max and I need to go find Yuri to ask her about something about training, don't we Max?" said Itachi and dragged Max, who was still glaring at Itachi's father, away. When they were at a safe distance Itachi let go of Max.

"I don't like your parents," Max hissed.

"This is the first time you've met them how can you hate them already?"

"Easily, they called Naruto a brat."

"You're holding a grudge against someone just because the called someone a brat?"

"Yes."

"Save your anger at them for the exam," Itachi advised.

"You want me to dismember them?" Max asked, letting the mood lighten a bit.

"Spread the anger over the matches," Itachi amended, grateful that she was letting up and hopefully wouldn't take action against his father. He could see all out war between Max and her flatmates against the Uchiha clan. It would be chaos.

"Fine." Max had also seen the potential for war and decided against a west side story like thing.

They headed back to their temporary home to find a hyperactive blonde and brunette waiting for them. Max almost walked straight back out of the place.

"We need to remember to lock this place, random hyperactive kids have infested the place!" yelled Hana from under a dog pile of Naruto and Kiba.

"I'll get round to it," said Max as she headed to her room only to find Laura sitting on her bed reading a book on human anatomy.

"So you came to watch me kill people?"

"Yup," was the cheerful reply. Max was instantly on alert, Laura was acting strange. Then she noticed her cup of coffee was now mysteriously empty from earlier. "It was getting cold," Laura said defensively.

"Is Anko here?" asked Max dreading the possibility.

"Yup!"

"Damn."

"Did someone say my name?" chirped Anko as she waltzed into the room. Max groaned and buried her head in her hands.

"Hi, Anko nice to see you again," she greeted, her voice muffled by her hands.

"My little sister is all grown up, taking her first chunin exam and getting to the third part on her first try, I'm so proud. It seems like only yesterday she was begging for bed time stories," mock cried Anko, hugging Max so much she was turning purple. To make things better, Itachi had been watching at the doorway, amused at Max's dilemma.

"Uh Anko?" Laura said, getting Anko's attention.

"Yes?"

"Max need to breathe." Anko quickly released Max who only then started to turn a normal colour again.

"Oh yeah," said Anko completely ignoring the glare from Max.

(The day of the finals)

Max was in the arena with the other contestants trying to ignore the attention, under her henge her face was heating up but she was grateful that the audience couldn't see it. Thanks to their ages, team seven held a lot of interest and the amount of bets made about how they would do was phenomenal. Of course Anko had bet on Max and Itachi getting to the final matches, she had seen them practice and knew what they were capable of.

"It's now time to start the final part of the chunin selection exams. Would the first two contestants stay on the pitch and the others go up to the observation box until they are called." The woman from the prelims announced. "The first match is between Hana Inuzuka of the Leaf and Kotetsu Hagane of the Leaf."

Both contestants were down on the field and the others moved to their area. Max only moved after wishing Hana luck.

"Begin."

Hana's dogs fanned out in front of her, in the preliminaries she had gotten lucky. This battle she had to fight.

Suddenly her opponent disappeared but her dogs still could smell him in front of her. The scent moved and before she knew it she was flying through the air, her dogs rounded on the scent using their noses instead of their eyes.

All three moved as one body and pounced. By this time Hana had recovered herself and realised it was a genjutsu. Focusing her chakra she dispelled it to see Kotetsu running at her with weapons drawn a couple of bite marks on his arm. They engage in hand to hand combat for a time, she suddenly drew away as her dogs jumped in.

The fight carried on, Hana fighting her best, she knew she probably wouldn't win; she wasn't a genius or power house like the rest of her team she didn't have an insane amount of focus and drive like Max or the extensive skill of Itachi. At the moment she was getting exhausted and she knew her dogs wouldn't last much longer. She decided on one more barrage then she'd give up.

Handing her dogs a food pill the gained more human like futures and taking one herself she gained more canine features. All four of them dived at Kotetsu in whirls of a clan technique from different directions. But Kotetsu dodged and jumped out of harms way. Hana knew she was now out so she and her dogs reverted to their original forms and she raised a hand.

"I give up," she announced.

"Winner: Kotetsu Hagane of the Leaf."

Both return to the box where Hana's is immediately hugged by Max. Yuri appeared in the box to add some words of wisdom.

"You fought well but you knew it wouldn't be enough and gave up avoiding injury to you and your dogs and for that I am proud of you," she said joining the hug. Itachi stood nearby and started to move away but Max grabbed him and made him join the hug.

"Next match: Maxine of the Leaf against Itsuki of the Rock."

Max untangled herself from the hug and jumped down, swinging over the railing, her opponent followed in a more boring jump. They both walked to the examiner, then Itsuki took a proper look at his opponent and gapped.

"You're that girl with the twisted mind and smart arse attitude," said Itsuki.

"You're that guy whose girlfriend has my deepest sympathy," replied Max sarcastically.

"Now that you know each other, you have a match to fight. Begin." Both fighters jumped apart and Max began the seals for her mud arms. Itsuki noticed and began seals for a water barrier. Max lit her arms, both of them this time, and ran forward stopping just before the water barrier in front of her, if her arms go wet it took more energy for the flames and so would put her at a disadvantage for later matches. Itsuki smirked triumphantly.

"So much for lack of skill. Water trumps fire." Max scowls and then remembered what she did to Kisame, she knew she wouldn't be able to repeat it and still continue her match. But then again mud slows water. Or she could let him waste his chakra. She extinguished her hands and waited, plans forming in her head.

She saw Itsuki race at her as his barrier fell, punching her in the stomach. The loss of visibility from water being in the air had temporarily blinded her, she went flying back into the arena wall from the hit.

There was a sickening crunch and a cloud of dust erupted from the impact obscuring Max. The rest of team seven held their breath, none of them had seen any sign of Max dodging at the last minute.

The dust cleared to show Max standing parallel to the ground, in a dent on the wall. She dusted her self down and relit her hands. She was going back on the offensive, channelling her anger. Itsuki had no choice but to dodge the furious girls attacks. Even if he blocked he would still get burnt. He managed to get a hit on her back by dodging a particularly vicious hit and landing the blow as she fell forward off balance. Max stumbled to her knees her concentration lost and her flames went out.

"As you can see I have more skill than you," taunted Itsuki walking around where she knelt in the mud. When he got behind her she reached into a hidden holster and grasped her gun.

"As you should know I have a surprise up my sleeve," she whispered, he barely heard her words. She pulled out the Desert Eagle out in a smooth movement and turned, getting to her feet, pointing the gun at Itsuki.

"This is my hidden weapon, I didn't want to use it so soon but you were being an ass so I had to." Itsuki wasn't sure if he should be scared of this thing, countries often came out with new weapons, like the umbrellas from Rain, and they were very dangerous.

"What is it?" He asked, might as well find out the details of it.

"It's called a Desert Eagle mark XIX, it has a 6 inch barrel and .44 calibre projectiles slug of metal. In short: it can kill you before you blink," said Max, her eyes were filled with excitement, she aimed for his arm which was out stretched holding a kunai. She fired a single shot at his arm, the bullet ripping off the top layers of skin to show muscle. Itsuki dropped his weapon and grasped his arm.

"Think of it as a blow dart, but over ten times more powerful, it can tear you apart, a single shot to the head and you'd be dead." Then she fired again Itsuki only just moving in time. He ran around the tail of bullets following him until they stopped. He risked a look at her and saw her changing a part before she could shoot he raised his hand.

"I give up." He knew when he was outclassed.

"Winner: Maxine of the Leaf." Before she returned to the box she went over to the examiner.

"Call me Max not Maxine or I will hurt you," she warned, brandishing the barrel of the gun in his face. And with that done she shushined to the box.

In the box she got jumped on by Hana.

"When you got knocked down I thought you were done for. And that punch!"

"You know me unpredictable and always have a back up plan." Max shrugged. Then as usual Yuri came over with here words of wisdom.

"I'm impressed. You do have some tricks up your sleeves. That answers why you wanted to learn summoning and you know the limits of your techniques, adapting your offense to the situation at hand." She patted Max's head in a patronising manner but stopped when the hand gun was pointed at her.

Max tucked the weapon into its holster, which was hidden by a genjustu, and sat by the edge of the balcony, her feet dangling over the edge.

"Third match Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf vs. Izumo Kamizuki of the Leaf."

Both genin descended to the arena. Many people were interested in the young Uchiha's match. It had the most interest from spectators due to the fame of the clan and his young age.

"Begin."

The two contestants blurred out of sight, flames coming from random parts. At random point one of them would fly backwards but no one could see who as they dived straight back in. Only a few people could actually follow the match fully.

It went on like this for a while, each time one hit the ground they would get up again. Another five minutes passed when suddenly there was a massive crash as Izumo hit the wall and got pinned to it by a mix of kunai and shuriken. Itachi walked over and held a kunai to his throat.

"I give up," said Izumo eyeing the kunai sceptically.

"Winner: Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf." Itachi walked back to the box after unpinning Izumo. As he had expected he got jumped on by both his team mates Yuri was there too and ruffled his hair.

"Good match just be careful of attacks from behind. At this rate I won't have you to teach by the end of this," said Yuri happily.

"Final match of the first round Ryou of the Sand vs. Moriko of the Mist." Both jumped down and faced each other.

Max zoned out of the match, her back kind of ached and she was focusing on dulling the pain ready for her next match.

"Winner: Ryou of the Sand. After a short interval the second round will begin," announced the examiner. There was a bustle of movement as people went to add or change bets and collect money on the first round results.


	17. Chunin Exams part 3 round 2

Max was still sitting on the balcony when the break had been called and had absolutely no intention of moving until she was called for her second match. Laura it seems had other plans.

"Congratulations Max, you haven't got killed yet." Max wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

"Yup but don't worry, you still have at least another round for me to die in. How was it back home without me?" 'Anyone give Naruto any trouble?' was what they both knew she meant.

"It's been quiet." 'No.' "I've been enrolled in the Konoha investigation office as an intern and they say I show great promise." Max smiled, that probably helped, Investigators were feared in their own right.

"Awesome, what about Naruto is he keeping out of trouble?" 'Pulling any pranks?' Max figured the answer before Laura answered.

"For the most part his stealth is pretty good he's been pulling pranks for most of the time and has only got caught once when I accidentally blew his cover." They both laughed.

"Remember before we came here when I had covered our English teachers chair in soap and how when he went to lean back in his chair he slipped of the chair," Max said, they both laughed again.

"Do you ever regret coming here?" asked Laura.

"Not once, you?"

"Nope. Coming here was the best idea, I sometimes feel a bit home sick, but then I remember it wasn't much of a life back then."

"Yeah, back then it was the same everyday and getting teased wasn't really my cup of tea. Here we got to start over." They both sat there for a bit until the examiner called for the beginning of the next round and Laura walked back to her seat.

"Welcome to round two of the chunin selection exams the first match will be Kotetsu Hagane of the Leaf vs. Maxi…Max of the Leaf," announced the examiner carefully covering up his mistake, that weapon looked lethal. Kotetsu jumped down while Max walked down the stairs. Once they were both in the centre of the field the examiner took a few steps back.

"Begin." Then she turned tail and ran to a safe place. Remembering the earlier battle of Hana vs. Kotetsu, he seemed to use genjutsu and taijutsu but ninjutsu was unknown.

She didn't want to use her Desert Eagle again so soon because it would cause an easy win and so no time to show she had what it takes to be a chunin. But they hadn't seen her fire techniques in action. She looked at Kotetsu and saw that he wasn't moving, it didn't seem right.

"Fleidermaus Augen," Max whispered as she moved her headband over her eyes much to the surprise of most of the audience, why would she give herself a disadvantage. Both being able to see with her eyes and FA confused Max too much so she only used one at any point. Using FA Max could see her opponent was setting up a few traps.

She sent some kunai in his direction, some with exploding tags some not. Kotetsu moved from his spot surprised she had dispelled the technique so soon, but then he saw it was because she wasn't using her eyes.

He remembered the prelims when she had covered her eyes but still seemingly been able to see. He noticed her arms were covered in mud and one was snapping. He watched as the spark set light to the entire hand. He dodged as the fire shot in his direction; he used a replacement jutsu with one of the stones nearby only to have the fire directed at him again.

Up in the Kage's area the Third Hokage had been talking to Yuri who was one of his guards.

"What technique is that?" he asked curiously, he had never seen fire used that way.

"One she made up but she won't teach them to anyone. I've tried to find out about them, Itachi's probably tried copying by now."

"Has he awoken his Sharingan then?"

"Yes he'll probably use it in his next match or the last one"

"You're confident he'll get that far."

"Yes, Max too."

"So you're confident of your two students making it to the final round. That would be quite an achievement."

"I believe they can make it." Yuri would have loved to say it was all her teaching but Max had been motivated to work beyond her teachings and Itachi had been taught by his family.

"But who do you think would win?"

"That remains to be seen, most of the time the fight would end in a draw," said Yuri cryptically.

Back in the fight Kotetsu had been using some wind techniques to stop the flames so Max had changed tactics and started to use Incendio Cenere, the close combat version, she would fight with both hands burning but every hit would release a bursts of the gas making it burn longer and in a larger area. So far Kotetsu had several burning patches and using wind techniques only made it burn more.

He managed to doge an attack and get behind her and aimed a kick right where Itsuki had got. Once again Max crumpled but this time she twisted and turned it into a roll and landed crouched with a kunai in each hand, her back was in pain but she pushed that away from her thoughts.

As she launching herself at him, he saw her coming and moved at the last moment but slipped over on a patch of mud left from Max's first match. He lost his balance and slipped a good 5 meters. He got up covered partially in mud to see no Max in sight.

Looking around he saw the shadow in one of the trees slightly different to the shape of the tree and threw some shuriken at it only to see it poof into smoke. It must have been a clone. Suddenly a kunai went right past his neck and embedded itself in the ground. He moved to the side and looked behind him to see, Max running at him. He felt something tug on his shirt and looking down he saw a small girl with silver hair looking at him with wide eyes. This gave Max the distraction she had wanted and pinned Kotetsu with a kunai to his neck.

"I give."

"Winner: Max of the Leaf," said the examiner. Max released him and walked back, thinking about her talk with Laura.

"Next match Ryou of the Sand vs. Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf."

Itachi had been daydreaming while leaning on the balcony giving Max the perfect opportunity to distract herself by a well placed foot which shoved him off. He was free falling for a bit before twisting his body to land safely. He walked to the center of the arena and glared at Max who was trying to look innocent.

"Begin." Both boys moved into a stance and circled each other, Itachi was mirroring Ryou with his Sharingan. Ryou did a few hand seals and called out at the same time as Itachi who had been copying.

"Tornado Blades!" In front of each boy a tornado began to form, each time a tendril of wind came out of Ryou's to attack one of Itachi's came out to counter it.

"How are you doing that? It's like you can predict my movements." asked Ryou his eyes wide as Itachi just stood calmly. Ryou obviously hadn't been informed about Itachi's bloodline.

"My secret." Another tendril snuck out and Itachi's moved at the same moment but Ryou had directed it at himself in the hope Itachi would do the same. He did but Ryou lost control of his and the tendril moved further towards him, not realizing Itachi had made another tornado inside Ryou's and was controlling both. The tendril struck Ryou in the chest ripping a deep gash. Ryou started to cough up blood and fell to his knees loosing blood quickly.

"I coughcough forfeit cough." With that the Sand nin collapsed.

"Winner: Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf," announced the examiner as some medic nins sped onto the field to tend to Ryou.

"The final match will be between Max of the Leaf and Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf and will commence in five minutes, the two opponents have five minutes to prepare."

'Five minute nap' Max thought.


	18. Chunin Exams part 3 round 3

"This is it, ladies and gentlemen, the final match of the chunin exams. First we have Max of the Leaf village. Not much is known about her except she's the youngest person to ever get this far in the chunin selection exams and most of her moves are her self created. And her opponent is her team mate Itachi Uchiha also of the Leaf village, the prodigy of the Uchiha clan with a recently awakened Sharingan by the looks of the last match. He has the favour of most of the people with his widely known bloodline but will Max steal the limelight and his glory. This will prove to be an interesting match so watch carefully."

In the box Max was slightly annoyed. Did that examiner have to announce all that stuff to the world? People were going to try to steal her moves, especially as they were her own.

"Will both finalists enter the arena?" Itachi jumped of the balcony before Max could kick him again. Max how ever, took her own sweet time. Both faced each other in a stance ready to begin.

"Begin." The crowd tensed ready for the first move. Max had absolutely no intent in starting the fight, she wanted to catch the audience off guard.

"Whoa Itachi you have a huge ego!" Max yelled, she was going to fight, just with words first.

"It's nothing compare to the size of your idiocy."

"You couldn't tell the right end of a horse even with a map and compass."

"You can barely go two steps before tripping over." The stadium was in shock about the performance so far, Max looked around.

"Um Itachi, I think they want us to fight," she said in a stage whisper.

"Your intelligence astounds me…"

"It astounds me too." They jumped back to make space and Max started the seals for her mud arms, Itachi copying her. When she made the ethane he couldn't due to the fact she wasn't using any visible signs of creating the gas. Since he didn't know what she was making so when they snapped their fingers only Max's caught light.

"So you can only copy when you can see what happens," she realised as she launched the disks of fire at him and around where he was standing.

Suddenly she had an idea. She concentrated on the ethane and changed it to limonene, a more complicated molecule, and much more fragrant. Not only would it make a sooty flame which would cloud the sight but would also mask her scent. Furthermore as a liquid it would be easier to direct. She sent it at Itachi and let it build up by feeding it with more hydrocarbons.

The soot was also causing Itachi to start inhaling it before he moved back out of its reach, he was crouching to keep his head below the smoke. He hadn't notice Max sneak behind him and put her hands in the seal of the tiger with a twig between her hands.

"One thousand year of pain!" was Max's war cry as she rammed a twigless branch up. Well she wasn't going to with her fingers, boys had cooties after all.

Itachi launched into the air away from the evil stick. Max had to restrain her self from laughing and keep her mind on the match. But then again she had wanted to try that out since forever.

Itachi ran back at her his hands forming seals. Max stood up tall and did what anyone else would do when some one is running at them with the intent to kill them for what they've just done in front of a large crowd. She took a deep breath and ran. She jumped onto the wall and used her chakra to stick and carried on running even when there was a dragon made of fire heading towards her.

So basically she was running for her life but as usual she was having fun while doing so. While she ran she attacked an exploding tag to a kunai with a lot of magnesium ribbon wrapped around it and small balloons of magnesium powder. Magnesium was a wonderful metal that burnt with a bright white light and was hard to extinguish.

She threw it at Itachi while still running for her life, it landed just short but then exploded in a flash of white light as the balloons exploded into a cloud of bright white lights, temporarily blinding Itachi as his sharingan tried to track all of the specks of glowing metal.

Just before it had exploded Max had lowered her headband and activated FA. She launched herself off the side of the wall landing behind Itachi who was still blinded. She threw two more kunai each going straight past either ear. Itachi whipped his head around to face the direction they had come from but Max had already moved and was throwing more towards him to disorientate him.

Each time he would move back and the kunai would just miss. That was until he jumped into the fire that was from earlier. Reacting quickly Itachi moved back again his eyesight final coming back only to see a kunai flying straight towards his face.

Because he was still airborne he couldn't move out of the way. Thinking quickly again he took out a kunai of his own and deflected it down.

Then he hit the wall that had been behind the fire. Pushing himself of he landed on the floor crouching. He needed to go on the offensive to have a chance of beating her. Max was thinking up her next move and created a clone to keep Itachi occupied.

She had turned FA off and decided she could try taijutsu. So reapplying her mud arms she set both hands alight. She used replacement jutsu with her clone so instead of fighting a clone whose hands were just a bit muddy from the terrain, he was fighting someone with flame covered hands.

He switched from blocking to dodging but instead of hitting with fists he used kunai, so Max collected a bunch of cuts on her torso and upper arms.

Max quickly withdrew a kunai from her belt being careful to not burn herself. As Itachi went to slash her again she blocked it with the kunai. For a few seconds they were like that neither budging a bit. Max added a spurt of ethane toward Itachi making him recoil instinctively.

The crowd was waiting in suspense, this fight would be talked about for ages to come. Laura was desperately hoping Max would at least survive, she knew that both of them tended to get carried away, often ending up with a nice stay in the hospital form over exerting themselves.

Anko was staring with glazed over eyes and Naruto was following her example. All the Kage's were watching with interest. The Uchiha's were also watching, Sasuke was cheering on his brother.

Both Itachi and Max were panting slightly and both were nearing their limits. The match would end soon. Both had gone to just fighting with weapons. Max had let the flames go out. Itachi wasn't using Sharingan.

Each blow was countered from the fact they had been fighting each other for months and had got used to each others style. Max realised this as did Itachi and they changed their styles slightly but it still had them at a stalemate. Max felt he chakra still draining. More than her normal Henge should.

Then she realised since she hadn't dispelled the clone she had used replacement with was still around and she had been subconsciously feeding it chakra. She got it into Henge into Sasuke, and made it run up to Itachi and tug his arm.

"Play with me?" the clone asked. Itachi just stabbed the clone without a second thought, making it disappear and causing Max to recoil from the information from her clone. Itachi pinned her to the floor with a kunai to her throat.

"Do you yield?" asked Itachi.

"I yield."

"Tournament Winner: Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf." Max shoved Itachi gently off, got up, took two steps and fell over.

"Damn I can't be arsed to move," moaned Max closing her eyes, wishing she could sleep for a week.

"The results for the third part of the chunin exams will be announced in two days," yelled the examiner far too loudly in Max's opinion.

"Could you be any louder?" grumbled Max doing her best to glare at the examiner. She felt someone help her up, she recognised Itachi's grip and smiled at him, drawing him in for a hug. Just because he has won didn't mean anything had changed. Hana and Laura looking at her with concern as Itachi went to assure his family that he was fine.

"I'm fine just tired," said Max as Hana suggested getting her check up on for the cuts, then she saw Itachi get ambushed and fawned over by his parents and congratulating him on the win, and decided maybe a check up wouldn't be so bad. On the way they were ambushed by Anko, Naruto, Hana's mother and brother who joined their journey.

At the hospital Max's wound were dressed and she had a lecture from the nurse about something but she was too tired to pay attention, not that she would have paid attention anyway. Most of the other finalists were also in hospital, they got put in the same room but with someone inside to make sure they didn't kill each other and each bed had a curtain which Max was glad for because as she fell asleep her Henge fell.

Max slept most of the next day only waking to eat and get another lecture on taking risks and playing with fire until she yelled at the nurse that she was a ninja and knew the risks so stop bugging her about it.

Two days after the finals, the finalists were allowed out to see the results. In the middle of the central square was a board with a list of the competitors and who gained the rank of chunin.


	19. Louise

Max, Itachi and Hana stood in front of the board and were scanning the names of the new chunin. Max had shoved the others out of the way to look, her height being a disadvantage. Each name had their village and age to go with it.

New Chunin:

Itsuki of the Rock (14)

Itachi of the Leaf (7)

Maxine of the Leaf (7)

Izumo of the Leaf (14)

Kotetsu of the Leaf (14)

Max chuckled at the sheet, her age was wrong but that was part of her cover. Team seven were happy, Hana hadn't wanted to pass, she hadn't felt ready and didn't want the pressure of being a chunin quite yet so was quite happy failing.

Team seven and families headed back to Konoha for the presentation ceremony to the people in which Max had managed to turn up late because she had been planning her next prank. When she had turned up, she had almost shoved Itachi of the balcony. By accident, of course.

(Massive time skip of about a year)

Max and Itachi had just passed their jounin exams and were rapidly getting higher level missions under their belts; they were a team most of the time. The Hokage had seen how well they worked together and seen no reason why he shouldn't use that to his advantage. Max and Itachi occasionally had solo missions for which they were uniquely suited.

Max had returned from her last mission to find Laura dissecting another cat on the table, this one looked a lot neater than the first and around the corpse were the organs neatly cut out and labelled.

"Laura! I thought I asked you not to do that on the kitchen table!" Max complained, poking a lung.

"But the other tables are full of crap."

"And now so is this one."

"Take that back! This is a work of art."

"And they make excellent projectiles," said Max picking up what looked to be a liver and throwing it at her. Laura dodged and the liver hit the door behind her.

Both had evil glints in their eyes and the throwing war moved to the living room. Unfortunately the door opened as Max had just thrown a spleen and it hit the new comer right in the face.

The new comer was an ANBU captain.

"Opps," was the collective apology that wasn't really meant by either girl.

"Max, Laura, the Hokage requires your presence in his office. Now!"

"Ok, see ya, bye." Both disappeared and ran all the way to the Hokage's office and burst in panting for breathe and then dissolved into giggles.

"Do I want to know?" asked the Hokage. The girls shook their heads.

"I've called you here to thank you for you tip off about the cloud diplomat thing, but the problem is we can't get him to confess and you two are highly recommended while Ibiki is away on an assignment." The eyes of the two girls lit up. Then Laura's dimmed a bit.

"I wish Louise could have been here she could make anyone crack," sighed Laura. Max sighed in agreement.

"Yeah, she made out French teacher cry by failing the class until the last lesson, then proceeded to spent the whole lesson talking fluent French," Max reminisced, the Hokage just waited for them to get back from memory lane. It happened sometimes, it appeared Louise was their only friend back before they came here.

There was a random disturbance in the ceiling as the surface seemed to warp and form a hole. Through the hole fell a girl about the same age as Max and Laura with really light blond hair and hazel eyes. Her eyes were wide with delight.

"I want to go again!" Max and Laura stared at her.

"Lou?"

"Who else would it be?" the girl asked.

"A purple dinosaur," Max said shrugging.

"Do you remember Japanese?" Laura asked.

"Duh!"

"Believe it our not were in a Japanese anime and we're about five."

"I know, I had gone to the maths room to find you guys and saw you talking to the two people in cloaks as the portal disappeared I heroically jumped through and landed here I think because of the time dilatation thingy I ended up later other wise I would be three not five," said Lou.

"Can you speak in a language I understand please and how did she get here?" asked the Hokage.

"Ok, this is Louise who we were talking about so we'd be happy to take on the job and I think it was a teleportation jutsu gone wrong," said Max smiling, she was twisting the truth a bit but she wanted to give the impression they weren't completely insane.

"Someone will escort you to the interrogation rooms." The ANBU that had told them to come walked in, though they couldn't see his face it was obvious he was glaring at them. In addition, he had a spleen shaped pink smudge on his mask. The Hokage wisely didn't ask.

The trio plus ANBU went to the room in an underground bunker hidden from the public eye and the trio walked into the room and saw the Cloud ninja chained to a wall. Behind them the door shut, the room was lit by a flickering bulb.

No one was quite sure what went on in the room, the three girls kept their lips sealed about it. The cloud ninja told them about everything asked except what the three girls had done.

The ANBU came in and dragged the Cloud nin out, the girls followed as the Cloud nin was lead to the Hokage

"He confessed I don't know how they did it but he confessed," said the ANBU his voice showing shock and a bit of awe. Cloud nins had been trained to not crack under torture yet these three girls had made one spill everything, including a few things they would have preferred not to know.

"Thank you Taki you're dismissed," said the Hokage, the ANBU disappeared.

"After that performance I would like one of you to join the interrogation squad under tutelage of Ibiki. Since Laura and Max are quite happy with their current professions maybe you would you like the job Louise?" suggested the Hokage, he was half hoping there would be more talented children appearing.

"I would be honoured to," said Louise with a grin, she was thinking of pain she could give and say it was part of the job.

"You'll be living with Max and Laura and the other residents in the house and you start work on Monday," said the Hokage. Taking that as a dismissal Max and Laura dragged Louise to their house that they had bought recently because the apartment had been getting cramped and explained every thing to her.

"So you're saying you live with a sadist and a hyperactive kid who played pranks. Laura, you're an intern at the forensic investigations department and Max you're a ninja and a pretty high level one at that, I have one thing to say. Awesome!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mini episodes about Laura (FIN) at the end of this chapter and others are now a separate story.


	20. Holy Hand grenade

(A few more years pass)

Protecting a council member on a diplomatic trip was a poor excuse for an A-rank mission. Very few shinobi enjoyed this duty but with the council's influence it was a job that needed to be done.

It was the third time Max and Itachi had been paired up and assigned this mission. For some reason Max was never given this mission solo.

Max had a slight buzz around her, they both knew when they got back they would be thrown into the entrance test into ANBU. The Third had hinted about it when they had been given this mission. Max had then rummaged through some of his paper work, instead of properly packing for the mission, to confirm their suspicions.

Since the first visit to Suna, Max had only been back occasionally when missions took her that way and she would always find Gaara and play with him, telling him stories of some of her adventures.

There was another reason for the buzz around the Jonin, if she remembered the series rightly then it would be a couple of days until the assassination attempts on Gaara started and she planned to be there to help him through. Gaara was like another brother to her and she protected her siblings.

Quite often she had stayed up all night talking to him, drinking coffee to stay awake. She had found she had become hooked on, though she would never admit it. It was stronger than tea and trying to find normal tea with all the varieties that the continents grew was like searching for a specific grain of sand in the Suna Desert.

Carrying on their tradition, Max and Gaara were lying on the roof of a building stargazing. Itachi was getting some shut eye while Max was on shift, a clone was watching over the diplomat council member. The warm air shifted as someone joined them on the roof, Max was already in a defensive stance by the time the newcomer had landed. Gaara slowly got up his eyes lighting up in recognition, then puzzlement.

"Uncle?"

Gaara's uncle had a strange look in his eyes, a hint of madness and anger. Max knew what would happen. But what could she do she couldn't kill a Sand nin and not Gaara's uncle, not when Gaara still trusted him. Maybe she was being selfish, she wanted to keep Gaara as a friend, but to do that she had to let this happen. If she protected him from his uncle then he would hate her, and she would never be allowed to set foot in Suna ever again, possibly even hunted down by the Sand Shinobi. She wasn't strong enough for that. She just hoped she could be strong enough for Gaara.

"You took her from me. You took my sister from me," was the man's strangled excuse as he threw some kunai with exploding tags at Gaara. The confused look on Gaara's face almost broke Max's heart. It was a good thing the sand protected Gaara, blocking the attack without his conscious thought. The sand then parted to show Gaara's uncle grinning as he opened his jacket, both children saw a mass of exploding tags.

"If you won't die I'm taking you with me demon," he said as he activated them. The explosion rocked the building seconds after Max dived towards Gaara, her momentum carrying them both over the edge of the roof and away from the expanding blast. The hurt in Gaara's eyes was unbearable for Max as they lay in the sand that had cushioned their fall. Max kept hold of Gaara, hugging him tightly as he shook from suppressed tears. She could feel the sand grasping at her, trying to remove her but she held on, refusing to let go.

She had wanted to save him from this pain and protect him for things like this. He flinched as she gripped harder but the sand gave up and shifted restlessly, some focusing on his forehead marking out the kanji for love on his forehead, Gaara screamed in pain as the sand cut in, then he sunk to the floor, still wrapped in Max's arms but refusing to look at her.

"From now on I will love only myself and live only for myself. I have no other purpose," he vowed, his tears now freely flowing.

"That's no way to live, to live for someone is a purpose we all have. You just need to find a person worth living for," said Max sagely, Gaara looked at her his eyes showing so much emotion he leapt on her and hugged her.

"I will live for you then. You're my sister in all but blood, I trust you." Max knew one day that would change but for now it was enough. They spent the rest of the night together pointing at stars and the constellations that Max had noticed and made up names for.

That's how Itachi found them in the morning. He had thought they were sweet and taunted Max saying ninjas weren't supposed to be sweet. Max had then thrown fire at him. He shut up before she decided to aim for his hair again.

The next two weeks had Gaara tagging around while they watched over the council member. Itachi had gotten used to Max's habit of making friends with children of the abused type, sometimes wondering why they seemed like kindred spirits.

It was hard to see the shinobi part of her when she was playing with other children. Even harder to see the cold assassin inside.

Flashback

Max and Itachi were on their first B rank mission to assassinate a small time thief who had stolen from the wrong person. They had successfully infiltrated his hideout and had made their way to where the thief was.

They shifted a ceiling panel and silently jumped down into the room with their target. Itachi kept watch by the window while Max moved forward not making a sound she already had a kunai in her hand so she wouldn't have had to make a noise taking it out.

She was behind the man slightly to the left and quickly she stabbed him in the throat making his breath the last. Taking the kunai back and wiping it they exited the same way they entered and only when they were far away did they stop.

Itachi had looked at Max since this was her first kill, he'd had his a few weeks back on a solo mission gone bad. He wasn't sure how she would react, her face was blank not giving him any indication. Inside her head a million thought were whizzing round until Max firmly decided on it being a necessary part of her life.

The Hokage had been a bit worried with her reaction as most kids her age wouldn't have done that they would have been feeling guilt or remorse but with Max there was nothing but the thought that he deserved it.

End flashback

All too soon Max and Itachi had to escort the council member back. Max had spent most of the day before she left persuading Gaara she would be back.

(Few months later, Max is 8 and Itachi is 10)

Itachi and Max had finished their final test for acceptance into ANBU and Laura had passed and been hired as a full time FIN, not just someone who shadowed. They were in the Hokage's office receiving their assignments.

"Congratulations, your full assignments are in these files. Max, Itachi, you are to report to Tora, training ground 17 at 6am." Max's eyes were wide, Yuri had been codenamed Tora and she had said she might go back to being ANBU, she didn't want to get stuck with another team. She flicked through her file to see if there was any indication she was right. Then she stole Itachi's while he was attempting to read it, to check through his. She had to choke back laughter when she saw his code name and showed it to laura, evading Itachi's attempt to retrieve it.

"Laura you'll continue as you were but with full Fin responsibilities. Good luck." With that they were dismissed. Max and Laura were so close to laughing but tried harder to hide it when Itachi glared at them.

"You're a rabbit!" Max had given in to her desire to laugh, closely followed by Laura following second later. Itachi knew it was funny and mentally debated that Max had probably persuaded the Hokage to name him that but why couldn't she be the rabbit, wolves were more his style. But no, he was stuck as Kuro Usagi, Max getting the codename Ookami Kage.

"Don't worry Itachi rabbit are evil and kill with evil sharp teeth, the only reason they're cute is to lure their prey into a false sense of security then they kill you," said Max, mirth still visible on her face.

"Then you have to kill it with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch," sniggered Laura and the two of them started laughing again until Itachi started throwing kunai at them. They had started pretending that a water balloon was the holy hand grenade and Laura was reading the rules from a random scroll.

"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it." said Laura as Max removed the imaginary pin and counted to three before throwing it at him only to have it burst as it was hit by a kunai.

"He destroyed the holy hand grenade, were doomed, doomed I say, DOOMED" yelled Laura as they decided it would be smart to run to at least make it harder for Itachi to hit them, not much harder they had to admit though. They still almost got sent to hospital for the amount of kunai that had hit them.


	21. A whole lot of death

It took all of three seconds to recognise their team leader. Through some recreational listening (It was not eavesdropping) Max had learned that Yuri was returning to ANBU. It didn't take a genius to put things together and get Yuri was their team leader. Both were trying to guess who the last member of their four man squad.

The Hokage had decided people could know about Itachi since he was a known prodigy but Max would keep her mask on to avoid unwanted attention unless she had Henge on. Only Itachi knew because he had been there and would have found out anyway. It wasn't uncommon to have an ANBU with a completely unknown identity, as long as they had been vouched for by a trusted source. That way if someone tried to infiltrate they could easily find them.

Once again Max was under a Henge but she made this persona older, about sixteen, but a short sixteen year old, like she had been before coming to the Naruto world, it was easier to make an image of something familiar.

She kept to unrestrictive clothing, shorts and short sleeves. It was difficult to be under a henge all the time in combat, if things don't match up then eventually it gets figured out. Her amour had to be altered to fit her small frame without sitting awkwardly and the tattoo was hidden unless she had her henge up.

One thing that did make her stand out was her insistence on wearing full combat boots, not sandals. She didn't bother to even henge sandals, trying to concentrate on movement of toes at any given point was just not worth the effort.

"I'm bored, can't we start training then when our other team mate turns up he or she can join in?" Max moaned, bouncing on the balls of her feet, combat boots took a while to wear in and so she was taking every opportunity to move them around.

"We need to train as a team so we wait. Patience is a skill that ANBU require," Tora lectured, patting a scowling Max on the head.

Max growled until the patting stopped then she sighed and went and sat on the side of one of the training post. She let her mind wander, her thoughts took her to all of the things she had done so far, now being as good as any time to think about this. She had saved Gaara's mentality, well she hoped she had, only time would tell with him.

She had helped Naruto so he wasn't a loudmouth and so that he knew a few techniques and if anyone attacked him he could defend himself. Also he and Hinata were friends, Laura had befriended Hinata and helped her come out of her shell and stop being such a push over but still had no arrogance, and since Neji's father was still alive Neji wasn't such an ass. She just wished she could do something about the seal. She understood it was one of their culture things but that doesn't mean she had to like it.

The only thing on her list of things to do now was wait for the Uchiha massacre and see what she could do; she may not like Sasuke much when he's older but if she could do something maybe he wouldn't be such an arse. She wasn't sure of the exact circumstances of it so she couldn't easily plan for it.

She was brought out of her thoughts when a kunai came flying though the air at her, looking around she noticed a book that looked awfully familiar. In a split second decision she moved, jumping down behind the newcomer and grabbing the book. She had noticed Itachi had gone to get the other team they would train with. The team turned up as she looked at the book but Itachi wasn't to be seen.

"I got your book, and you call yourself ANBU? You should be ashamed," Max crowed while holding the book like a trophy, she danced around the newcomer who tried to retrieve it. "Now I shall share what you think is so interesting with the whole squad"

Max skim read a couple of lines quickly and realized it was porn and her 8 year old self shouldn't be reading it but her 16 year old mind could she decided to mess with their heads, what she does best and of course, enjoyed doing very much. She had also realized that Inu was Kakashi, if the lateness and book hadn't given it away the messy silver hair had, though it was a few shaded lighter than hers in her Henge.

Max started to weave a tale, starting from the book but deviating it to include both an absent ANBU and the one who had been late, much to the bemusement of anyone not mentioned.

None of them had been warned of Max's imagination, Itachi should have known, but he hadn't been there to stop her and Kakashi hadn't been there long enough to figure out she was a bit odd.

Itachi managed to turn up just as Max was detailing out a graphic part that included him as a girl. She was acting completely oblivious to his appearance. Everyone else stood perfectly still, she felt a glare from behind her she turned to see Itachi glaring at her she nervously laughs hiding the book in a pocket.

"Fancy seeing you here usagi" said Max stressing his code name.

"..."

"I was just demonstrating why they shouldn't annoy me nothing personal."

"…"

"All right all right I'm sorry you don't need to nag me about it."

"…"

"Come on I said sorry didn't I what more do you want." The other ANBU were looking at them wondering how she knew what he would say. Kakashi took this exchange as an opportunity to retrieve his book from the small ANBU and put her in a headlock while he was close enough.

"Inu, Ookami act your ages," ordered Tora. Max sniggered, her age was eight, a few years older than throwing mud and mock fighting with sticks. The two teams finally got down to training for a bit, it was a standard pre-team training to see what innate cohesion they had, so they knew what to work on and how best to structure themselves on how they naturally worked.

They weren't quite getting beaten but only due to the individual skills of Kakashi and Yuri and the combined skills of Itachi and Max who had worked a lot of moves together.

Eventually they had cycled through the different scenarios that they needed to do and the other team left to do their own training. Yuri turned to her team to formally address for the first time and assert her authority.

"Right, as you know I am Tora, your team leader. Inu, both Ookami and Usagi are new but talented. You two munchkins, Inu is a senior member of this team so respect him," she said glaring at Max. Said girl was mildly surprised since she couldn't remember Tora being told, but to be honest they weren't ANBU for no good reason. After working together for so long a flimsy disguise was practically transparent.

Yuri then set them goals, forcing Max and Kakashi to team up, seeing their rivalry as a possible liability. While they were professional and it shouldn't affect missions she wanted them to work together more. Both of them could learn a lot from the other. Itachi was occasionally paired with one of them for a task but he was mostly building chakra, he didn't have the years of Yuri and Kakashi or the natural reserves that Max had and ANBU required much more of a drain on chakra.

For the first few weeks the training became a regular event, Max would still steal Kakashi's book in a new and exciting way and she would still get scolded by Yuri. The team was eventually turning into a well-oiled machine under the guidance of Yuri, her previous ANBU experiences were invaluable to the build.

Tora was the best tactician of all of them, her understanding of how people worked, either on their own or in a group made her the logical leader. She had spent a lot of time deep undercover and assimilated some foreign tactics to merge with her own. Her medic training helped give that fine edge to her assassination style.

The most experienced of the team was naturally Kakashi, he had the most confirmed kills and numerous powerful techniques. He had underestimated the two young members of the team when he had summoned his dogs. Having been teamed with an Inzuka they knew how to play with nin dogs, Kakashi had scolded his dogs for being so susceptible to belly rubs.

Itachi and Max loved tag teaming against the adults, it was the only way they stood a chance most of the time. Max was the powerhouse with an imagination and Itachi had the natural skill and large arsenal of explosive justus at his fingertips. They would often henge into each other to keep the two older member of the team guessing, they knew enough of each other's techniques and habits to confuse even Yuri.

It took about a month to get to the stage of full battle readiness, before that only taking smaller missions to make sure the team was working out.

A month of taking some of the most dangerous missions was all it took for them to become a team talked about in hushed voices.

A few months and they were known through the continents as very dangerous, each team member boasting a hefty bounty in multiple countries. They were the new flagship team of the ANBU. Teams didn't normally last long at that title. If a mission seemed impossible it got handed to them, if it seemed beyond dangerous, it got handed to them.

\----

The team managed five months with the title of Flagship ANBU Team, a length previously unheard of.

They were fleeing from a mission gone wrong, the enemy had managed to gain intel on their mission and so there had been a small army of jonin lying in wait for them, they had managed to hold off long enough for Yuri to get through to continue their mission, covered by a shadow clone taking her place, in the confusion of the battle it went unnoticed.

Yuri assassinated the traitor quickly, burning the body as quickly as she was able before heading out to rejoin her team so they could make a tactical retreat. It was clear they were not going to make it back to Konoha in their current state, the best bet was getting some of their own to come to them and aid their escape.

Kakashi had sent out some of the the fastest of his dogs trying to get as much reinforcements as possible. The unit continued to fight, trying to avoid getting herded together, it would be all too easy to hit them all in one shot if they were bunched up.

What happened next seemed to both take hours but at the same time only seconds. Max had been thrown clear of the group by an explosion, leaving her vulnerable with a bunch of people between her and her team. The enemy had seen that as a ripe opportunity to cripple the team. Max had tried to fight back to her team, ripping through people who just would not stop coming blocking her. She was beginning to panic, a bad feeling building in her gut.

She finally managed to break through, rushing to take up her part of the defense. As she moved several justu followed her, causing her to dodge around to evade, not quite noticing she was being lead, the attacks seemed to random for that with so many other ones flying around.

It wasn't until too late she found she was trapped, her arms were pinned to her sides cutting into them every time she tried to move, a similar loop pulled at her throat. A powerful lightning attack was zipping down the wires, forming dual dragons. The clash of those two dragons would fry her. Even in the wires were cut the wire was special, the dragons would only jump the gap to the other piece. Only two known people of the Kumar clan used that technique and no one had ever escaped from it.

Max couldn't stop herself from closing her eyes as the dragons got close. She waited for the burn of electricity. There was a shout from Kakashi and Max's eyes snapped open, standing in front of her, holding both sides of the wire was Yuri. She had completed the circuit, the lightning taking the shorter route through the older ninja's body saving Max. There was a brief pause in Max's mind, as if her own brain had just short circuited. Then she started glowing, a small layer of pale energy engulfing her body. She stretched her arms out, snapping the wire, sending a ripple of gasps through the enemy ninja.

The connection severed by the influx of power Max had inadvertently sent back to the wires origins killed the dragons. Yuri collapsed only just getting caught by Kakashi who motioned to the two kids to retreat. Itachi hesitated, seeing Max only moving enough not to get hit by enemy attacks. Her eyes briefly met his and he knew what she was doing would not differentiate between enemies and him. He needed to leave and so he did, following in Kakashi's wake.

The glow on Max's body expanded into tendrils that quickly snapped out at anyone nearby, dispatching them with ruthlessly efficient moves. Some stabbed through the throat, some snapped necks, and some tore off limbs. There was blood showering the area, soaking into the ground, making puddles of red tinged mud.

It was only when the screams stopped Max snapped out of it, the mist being reabsorbed into her body. Her legs suddenly didn't support her anymore and she fell to her knees. The loss of control worried her, she'd never done that before, she hadn't been able to stop until they were all dead. What if her team hadn't retreated, would she have done that to them too?

She stood up on shaky legs and started walking home, concentrating on putting one foot in front of another. The sun had set not long ago and any light was fading fast.

Any sunlight had gone by the time Konoha came into sight, the streets were thankfully pretty empty as Max headed to where most of her team were, in the Hokage's office. She felt all eyes on her as she entered.

"Max?"

"I'm fine," she said automatically, her voice sounding flat.

"What is the status of your pursuers, the teams we sent came back and said there was no one following?" the Hokage asked.

"They're all dead," Max said in the same numb voice before her limbs all decided to rest after all the exertion they had done over the last few hours. Itachi managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Get some rest Max, we'll deal with this in the morning."

"Where's Yuri?" Max croaked, fighting to stay awake.

"She's in the hospital." None of them mentioned that she wasn't expected to survive the night. "Itachi take her home." Max didn't even have the energy to try to convince them she could make it home on her own. She vaguely remembered being half carried home but past seeing her bed there was nothing but blissful unconsciousness.

The next day came with good news and bad news. Max had dragged herself out of bed as soon as her limbs had started responding again and stumbled to the hospital only to collapse in a chair by Yuri's bed. There was a faint heartbeat, but no other signs of life from the woman.

"The doctors don't know if she'll wake up." Kakashi told her, he'd been sat on the windowsill all night watching. The two of them sat watching, hoping for some sign.

"I was hoping to find you here Max." The Third didn't often personally find you unless something was horribly wrong. Kakashi got of the window sill, standing to attention briefly in respect for the village leader. "The Kumar clan are demanding you be handed over due to your actions yesterday." Two dark glares met that declaration. A slightly crazy gleam sparked into life in Max's eye.

"I'll go." That was met with confusion. "Expect me back by tomorrow." The confusion was gone.

"You still need rest."

"Just give me some soldier pills." Max wasn't going to give this up. The Kumar clan had just crossed that line and by the time she was done there wouldn't be a clan to demand her head.

"I admire your determination." Sarutobi said tiredly, he was trying to figure out if it was worth letting her go. It would mean he wouldn't have to try to make them happy and it might remind some other clans that Konoha is powerful and not to be messed with. Some small villages had been making some noise recently. "I'm putting you on three day rest." Max's eye practically bugged out.

"What!"

"Though I have no way of actually making sure you do rest, nor where you go during that time." Both Kakashi and Sarutobi hoped to never again see the grin that spit across Max's face.

Perfect.

Max took three steps towards the window before leaping out. Tomorrow, she promised herself, the Kumar clan would be a memory, nothing more.

Still in the hospital room the two men looked concerned. The girl they had just seen was different from the girl that had shot through the ranks, the bright happy-go-lucky girl with a slightly off sense of humour and enough charisma to charm Ibiki if she ever wanted to. What they saw just now was a vengeful child with a feral canine look she'd possessed since she got back yesterday. Bad things were going to happen. Sarutobi wondered if Max had realized she was still covered in blood, now a rusty red.

The musings were interrupted by Itachi turning up. "Max is gone." Had the situation been any different Kakashi would have made a joke, probably inappropriate for the age of his team mates. It was easy to forget how young they really were.

"She has a three day rest period, she could be anywhere. I would advise you don't follow her." Having seen the state Max had been in yesterday Itachi internally agreed.

"How's Tora?" This room was likely the first place Max would return to. Best place to wait.

\----

True to her word Max was back by the next day, closely following the news of a massacre suspiciously in the same area she had been in. It was hard to tell if she was covered in more blood than the last time they had seen her.

What had changed was the state of the room. There was no reassuring beep from the heart monitor. A sheet was fully covering the body of the fourth member of the former flagship team.

Any aggression Max might have still had was gone in an instant.

"When?" she croaked, looking at her two other team mates, neither of whom had managed to meet her eyes since she had got back.

"Just after the sun rose this morning. There was nothing that could be done."

"All three of you are on mandatory leave until you are deemed fit for duty." Sarutobi hated saying those words, but for their safety it had to be done. It was standard procedure. He should have done it when they got back but he had seen the volatile state Max had been in and killed several birds with one stone.

The three remaining team members seemed resigned to this fate. It wasn't the first time for Kakashi to go through this, but for the two younger members they would need support.

"And Max, take a shower, dried blood isn't good for your skin."

As was expected Kakashi was cleared for active duty before Max and Itachi. Max had almost failed the psych evaluation and so had three weeks of probation as an active ninja. This limited her to mostly escort missions with a maximum of a low B-rank if she was lucky.

For this reason she was sitting in a tea shop waiting for her order. Fetch missions were boring but it was something and it did get her out of the village. Some guy had wanted some specific tea that was only sold in Tea Country because of its rarity.

While she waited she looked through the other variety's, she couldn't imagine drinking some of them but if she drunk tea then it would be normal with a bit of milk, no fruit or herbs. Itachi liked those, he probably would have appreciated this mission more than here but he was allowed higher ranked missions and the village had been swamped over the last few days. That didn't mean the Hokage would shorten her probation just for a bit of extra man power.

If she was honest, Max would admit it was nice to have a bit of a break, ANBU had been a lot of work and now she was actually getting more than three hours of sleep on a regular basis. She was calmer, though still trying to figure out the events surrounding Yuri's death, especially the days after, she couldn't remember all that much of it, most of it was just a hazy of colour, mostly red. She had been told the basics but it was suspected that her mind was unconsciously protecting her from the mental trauma until such a time she could deal with it. It was common in young shinobi.

Finally the order was completed and wrapped to keep it fresh. Max dumped it into her pouch and left the village, taking to the treetops as soon as she was outside the village limits. It was nice not to be chased for once but she still kept up a fast pace.

It had taken longer for the order to be filled than it should have due to some new girl working at the shop. Max would be lucky if she got halfway home before the sunrise. If she didn't take a break she could make up for the lost time and get back before 6pm tomorrow, when the deadline for the tea delivery was. If an order like this was late then the cost for the client was halved.

As it happened Max managed to arrive just as Itachi was returning from his own mission, his was high enough to report directly to the Hokage though, hers was just a simple report to the mission office for delivery.

What confused her were the looks of fright she was getting from the unfortunate bunch of shinobi working the mission office. Figuring it couldn't hurt to ask she opened her mouth to ask what the problem was. Before she could say a word most of them dove for cover.

This warranted a trip to a certain Hokage. She didn't even bother waiting for Itachi to finish his debrief.

"What is wrong with the guys at the mission office?" she demanded, knowing she was being extremely rude. Something in her gut told her something was wrong and she needed to know what and why.

"You've only just got back." Max nodded. "An hour ago the Uchiha clan was decimated. Only two people survived. Sasuke was at your house and Itachi was on a mission."

"Do you know who did it?" Max fought to keep her face from showing any emotion. She may not have seen eye to eye with the Uchiha's but she had never wished death on any of them.

"A passerby claims he saw Itachi leaving the compound, dripping with blood," Sarutobi said, reading from what was probably witness statement.

"The problem is I got back five minutes ago."

"Some suspect you helped, after the Kumar clan thing. You should know that the citizens think what they want and nothing changes that."

"So what do we do now then?" Max asked. Sarutobi fixed a wise gaze on her, as if trying to figure something out. He seemed to come to some sort of answer and Max and Itachi bother felt privacy seals snap into place. Both shinobi unconsciously shifted to attention. This was no time for joking around.

"Akastuki have been sniffing around Itachi, something you two might have noticed, I suspect they've been looking to recruit him. The organization is still largely unknown and I would feel better knowing what their objectives are. This gives the perfect opportunity to insert a spy into their midst."

The implications of this took a while to sink in, this would be a long term dangerous mission, one that Itachi may never be able to return from. Everyone would think it was he who had killed his family. They already did though, this was one of those opportunities that when they came by, needed to be grabbed else you never get one again.

"No one outside this room must know of this. Max you are his contact. I will announce a cover story tomorrow. Itachi, you must be gone by then. Do not be seen. Max you'll need to do some acting to keep up this charade. Any questions?"

"No."

"Good."


	22. The Hakie clan legacy

The next few weeks were a blur after Max got suspended from ANBU until further notice. Max seemed to have lost most of her drive, she knew the first few weeks would need to be believable. It was common in ANBU who lost team mates since they tended to be like extended family. One of the late nights she had spent training she had collapsed; luckily Izumo and Kotetsu had found her.

After the chunin exams they had become friends and often had met up for lunch. They took her to the hospital and she had been referred to a psychologist who just said she was an attention seeking brat. The psychologist was found three days tater hanging by her ankles from a tree. From the rumours that where going around Inu wasn't in a much better state of mind.

To top it of the council thought she was getting a bit unstable so made a decision. Max was called to the Hokage's office. The sadness in his expression didn't look good until the privacy seals went up.

"If I didn't know better I would have actually believed you were actually upset about Itachi."

"Yuri taught us a lot, acting can save your life."

"Unfortunately I don't have good news. The council want to keep you as a civilian. I managed to convince them that it would be a huge mistake. I managed to get them to agree to allow you your ninja license on several conditions." Max nodded, she had been expecting this. The decision would affect the direction her acting took. "They are allowing you to start again, from the academy, subject to passing another psych evaluation. You need to pass that with flying colours. Not another scrapping a pass. You will be allowed to rise through the ranks again but you will be under constant scrutiny. This will make your job as Itachi's contact harder but I expect you will manage." Max took a few moments to ponder the decision and shrugged, she did enjoy a challenge.

"I understand."

"You're being remarkably mature about all of this."

"Not all of the last few weeks have been acting. I'm coping with the events in my own way."

"If you need to talk, try not to upset another psychologist and just talk to me." Max nodded.

\----

Several more nights of beating the crap out of trees followed. She'd had to tone it down a bit so they still had trees left but she'd pointed out that it was either that or people.

Laura had had enough after one of Max's latest 'training' sessions she cornered the ex-ANBU.

"What is your problem? You're acting like the world ended," asked Laura.

"My problem is the nearest person to a proper parent got killed, one of my close friends and team mates got labelled as a missing nin so everyone thinks I'm going to kill people just because I was on his team and I now have to go back to the academy as a student that my problem" Max said in a dead tone. She hated keeping things from her best friend but anyone knowing could jeopardise the mission.

"You know what? Once I was really depressed I thought things would never get better when my only friend said to me 'if things won't get better on their own make it better yourself'. I took those words to heart and eventually overcame my depression, you should too," said Laura knowing full well Max said those words to her. Max cracked a small smile at the memory, the first real smile since Yuri's death.

"I suppose if I have to start the academy again I will just have to excel at it and get out fast," pondered Max, stroking her chin as if she had a beard.

"By that time they'll be begging you to leave," joked Laura she knew Max way to well; she knew Max had several stages of getting out of a depressive phase: denial, anger, numbness and payback. Not necessarily all of them or in that order.

A few more weeks passed and Max managed to pass her psych eval with a score good enough but not enough to arouse suspicion that it was all an act. Sarutobi had signed her up for the academy with the next class but this time Max would be as her normal unhenged self. Kakashi had gone back to a jounin and was failing his teams. Both seemed to be getting better but both had noticed ANBU following them. Standard procedure sucked sometimes. Going to the hot baths was no longer an option until she managed to drop them.

Beating up trees soon became a bit too repetitive, if her arm muscles got any stronger normal things would become an issue. Instead she focused on the chakra side of her training. She thought of creating a new technique, but needed something to base it on. She sat on a training post meditating, letting her thoughts cycle through, naturally progressing on their own in a way she called 'Free thought'.

She didn't realize how deep she'd gone until she suddenly gained awareness. Only it wasn't the training grounds. It was her old maths classroom.

A sinking feeling grew in Max's stomach, why was she here? Unless she'd never left. Was Konoha all just a dream?

Her slightly more rational side told her to look around and find out instead of just spectulating. There was a crash from the direction of the main hall so Max hurried out of the classroom to the source of the noise.

She peered through the door and frowned, unless the school had invested in a huge multi-tailed wolf then this was not her dimension at the very least.

"Who dares enter my abode," said the tall creature noticing her sneaking into the room.

"YOUR abode! This is my fricken body you're in so it's my abode," growled Max, a very speculative idea, but this kind of thing was par for the course in Naruto land.

"So you're my host?"

"Yup," said Max happily. "Though I would prefer the term Landlady. Makes me sound more important."

"You look small," said the demon leaning forward to sniff her.

"And you look like a puppy on steroids," replied Max evenly, trying not to move away.

"We aren't going to get anywhere arguing or insulting each other," said the wolf having finished its sniff.

"So why am I here and why is my head void of all things awesome?" said Max as she believed her head would be full of pictures of half naked hot guys or actual half naked hot guys. She was mentally a teenager and her mind had been corrupted by Louise long ago.

"You're inside your head because I need to talk to you." Max pouted, her second question had been completely ignored.

"So do you need to talk to me?"

"Demon containers eventually take on characteristics of the demon they hold, depending on the power and the change. Kyuubi's container has had the whiskers since birth because of Kyuubi's power. You get yours now because you needed to progress to a point to be able to handle them," explained the seven tailed beast. Max wasn't sure if the creature was smirking at her.

"What changes?"

"Heightened senses, cute little wolf ears. I was tempted to give you a wolf tail too but it would probably hinder you too much. You might get some other stuff when you hit puberty, depends on how I feel at that time. Oh and I guess I could let you summon wolves as long as you don't abuse that privilege."

"Okay, could be interesting I guess," Max muttered without much enthusiasm she signed the contract that appeared in front of her and it disappeared and a small puff of smoke. "Now to get out of my mind. Whoa never thought I'd say that." Max focused on the real world and with a pop she disappeared. She woke up in the forest and immediately regretted it. With her newly enhanced senses she could see, hear and smell everything and about a 5 kilometer radius. She spent the next half hour dulling them so she wouldn't be over whelmed. She looked in a puddle near by and saw the wolf ears replacing her normal human ears. She quickly set up a layered henge so it would be difficult to see what she was hiding even to Hyuuga's.

She sat on the post again, trying to get back to her original train of thought, a helpful idea came to mind and Max suspected her tenant. She liked the idea of using lightning, something she was weak against. She used her extensive knowledge of other fandoms to fuel an idea that would be awesome if she could get it to work.

No one really saw her for three weeks as she worked on it. Occasionally Laura would come home to find Max passed out at the kitchen table, references scrolls scattered around and a scroll of notes in Max's recognizably messy scrawl in danger of being drooled on.

\----

Two weeks before the new academy intake that she would be joining she got a letter anonymously in the post. The handwriting was familiar but it was only after she read it she realized why.

_Max_

_If you're reading this I'm dead, I hope it was protecting those I care for. I have no doubt that if I was killed by enemies then they are no longer are living either. Don't morn for me, accept it and move on. You're a brilliant shinobi and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Despite your pranks you and Laura felt like my own blood, I wish I could have let you know in person. I would like the both of you to continue the Hakie name. I know you will make me proud, you are my legacy and the legacy of the clan. The clan's history is in the library if you want to find out more. I would like for you to take up one of the clan weapons, even if you never become adept at using it. I think you would enjoy trying at the very least. There is one sealed into the back of this letter, I think it would suit you best, the others are with the clan history._

_Look after the team; don't let my death separate you. I wish I could watch you all grow up._

_Don't let anyone push you around or put you down. Put them in their place and make sure they stay there. And don't forget to kick some ass for me._

_Yuri_

It was probably the first time Max had even stepped foot in Konoha's library. She had vaguely been aware of it but she had never been curious of what would be in there.

She found the clan history section and found the Hakie part and started reading. Hakie's were often adopted into the clan, making it more like a bunch of misfits than an actual clan. To hold the Hakie name almost always put you in the Bingo books if they weren't already there. There had never been more than about five Hakie's at any point in time. The predominant style was some form of bladed staff, like a scythe or glaive, utilizing speed and the momentum of the staff.

Max got a bit curious to which weapon Yuri had picked for her and unsealed the back of her letter. A beautifully scythe pooped into existence. Max ran her fingers over it, drinking in the sight and feel of it. She couldn't wait to start using it. She wandered down the other aisles of the library until she stumbled across some scythe techniques, she'd only just noticed them with the dust covering they had.

By the time the academy started up again Max had already started mixing her own fighting style in with the scythe techniques, she'd kept it from the others, liking having a secret weapon.

It was a shame she was stuck in class, learning the same things she had a few years back. She itched to get outside and play with her new toy. Instead they were learning ninja rules, many of which Max ignored on a regular basis. She was proud to see that the burn mark on the ceiling hadn't been fixed.

At least there were some familiar faces in her class. She had asked Naruto join the year, citing it as a good time for him to start, and he might lessen the pranking. Also in the class was Sasuke due to the council's 'suggestion'. Max wanted to do damage control but she would have to tread carefully due to her association with the elder Uchiha.

She should have known eventually he would realize that despite his clan name he wasn't the best in the class. He wanted to know why it was her someone with no bloodline. It had taken some effort to not pound him into the ground as it would have been so easy to do. Keeping her skills down to that of a new trainee had been a difficult task. Trying not to show off was horribly difficult, showing off was in her nature.

\----

It was during a lecture on massacres in the recent years Max had noticed Sasuke looking pissed even before his clan massacre was mentioned. Max was caught off guard when the Kumar clan came up, she had completely forgotten about that. She quickly pushed it to the back of her mind and zoned out. When she was ready to deal with it then she would.

In the corner of her eye she noticed a bird circling the building, an ANBU summon, they would only be seen by whoever was being summoned.

"Iruka I need to go to the bathroom," said Max innocently, Iruka sighed and nodded at her. She ran out the room and then shushined to the Hokage's office. "'Sup?" she greeted, barely managing a salute.

"A friend has a note for me, I need you to retrieve it. Unfortunately he is traveling with another. You need to temporarily take him out before the retrieval." So basically, get report off Itachi, but knock out his companion first. Sarutobi pointed to a place on the map where he was last seen and Max was off.

It wasn't long before she found Itachi and his companion. His companion just so happened to be a certain fishman.

"We appear to have a visitor Itachi," said Kisame reaching for his sword. Max was proud that she warranted that action.

"Maybe she should show herself instead of hiding," was Itachi's casual remark, he made no obvious move to ready himself.

"Her chakra seems familiar; Samehada can feel the same pattern from a while back."

"Unless she gets down here we may never know." with that clear invitation Max jumped down, then immediately moved to avoid the cluster of kunai aimed at her. Itachi had gotten faster, she'd almost missed his movement.

"I hear you both have bounties. I could do with the cash," Max was lying, she had to come up with something plausible for Kisame. Itachi already knew why she was here.

"I remember you. You're that brat who used the lightning, Max. I never repaid you for that but it seems my chance has come." Kisame smirked, showing off his pointy shark-like teeth.

"That's assuming I don't beat you with my superior knowledge again, I do believe I promised sushi this time." she replied unsealing her scythe and twirling it a couple of times before stepping into the beginning stance.

"But this time its two against one and you still believe you can win." said Kisame as he removed Samehada from his back and Itachi activated his Sharingan.

"Nothing is impossible if you beat it in the head enough times," said Max shrugging. With that they leapt into action, both Kisame and Itachi on the offensive and Max on the defensive. It took a few minutes for Max to get bored of Kisame and lodged the blade of her scythe in a tree.

Now seemed perfect to try out her latest technique. She started rubbing her hands together, adding some charka to either side, dodging the continuing attacks. The sound of the fighting masked the crackling coming from her hands, but the small sparks were harder to hide.

She took the next opportunity she had, feinting with a powerful clone and grabbed the back of Kisame's neck, sending a large electric pulse into his spine. The blue man dropped like a sack of potatoes and Max almost followed, doubling over from the unexpected feedback.

"That's new," Itachi commented raising an eyebrow, he kept his distance for the moment.

"I got bored."

"I can tell."

There was a silence as they looked over each other, trying to figure out what they'd been up to, without actually asking. Finally Max moved, pulling Itachi into a hug. "I miss you," she mumbled.

"I miss you too," Itachi whispered, wrapping his arms around her.


	23. A new team

At the first opportunity several students were put through the genin exams. The true genius kids, of which there were quite a few, as well as the normal graduating class which had created a familiar bunch of kids. Most of them passed, it was pretty difficult not to. As usual Max had high-tailed it out of the class room to the Hokage's office.

"Let me guess you want to know what team you're on." Only a bit predictable.

"Yup."

You're on team seven again," he said and Max laughed at that. Then she gave him a look, he had answered her asked question but not given the answer she had wanted.

"Who's on my team?" she asked, that sinking feeling taking up residence in her stomach again as she remembered who else had graduated.

"Since Miss Haruno has opted to join the new medical academy, it will be Naruto, Sasuke Uchiha and yourself." Max was silent, her right eye twitching slightly. She had hoped to help the kid but she had also hoped to help from a further position.

"Why?" inquired Max.

"The council thought you would help train the Uchiha survivor." Max let out a small bark of laughter before turning serious again.

"No."

"No you don't want to go on the team, or no you don't want to train him?"

"I don't want to train him." Max said as if she were stating the obvious, which in a way she was. In truth she was surprised she was allowed anywhere near the kid considering the perceived situation with Itachi. She would let it roll though if she could get something out of it.

"Would you help train both of your team mates?" Sarutobi knew Naruto was the nearest to leverage he had over Max in this situation. Max rolled her eyes, she'd not considered he'd pull that card out. Not this soon anyway.

"Yes."

\----

The next day Max decided to sleep in, or tried to. It was hard with a hyperactive child bouncing on her bed.

"Max get up! We get out teams today!"

"Really? I had totally forgotten." Max mumbled sleepily, rolling to face away from the grinning face hovering over her.

"We're going to be late!"

"Don't care." There was a good chance their new team leader would be late anyway. Max had forgotten to ask who they had yesterday. It took the best part of an hour for Naruto to drag Max out of bed and convince her to go.

As such it was not surprising that the classroom was full and all attention was focused on them as they walked through the door.

"Not a good start you your ninja careers," Iruka chastised, it fell on deaf ears. Naruto had bounced over to Kiba, practically diving into the seat and Max had sauntered over to a spare seat and promptly sat on the table. Iruka sighed, at least they were graduates and he hopefully wouldn't have to see them again.

"I will call out the teams, your teachers will meet you after lunch," he announced then rattled off the list. Max probably couldn't have cared less about some of the other teams even if she had tried. They would most likely get to an average level and not be able to progress. Kind of like people who worked in fast-food all their life back in Max's own universe.

"Team seven: Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Maxine Hakie."

"My name is MAX not Maxine," fumed Max, she'd been saying that for her entire second round through the academy. Iruka just ignored her, hiding the smirk for his small revenge, and carried on.

Finally he was done and they were let out for lunch as a chance for them to meet up as a team and talk. Naruto had glued himself to Max's side the second they were outside.

"I can't believe you're on my team! I thought you'd get singled out for this awesome role, or have your own personal tutor so you can get bac-" Max quickly shoved her hand over his mouth.

"I don't want the entire of the academy knowing so zip it," said Max, she released him and suggested ramen for lunch as a quick subject change. She rarely let him eat the noodles he loved, citing the need for a healthy well balanced diet to be a good ninja. It also made for a good distraction or bribery. On the way out of the academy grounds they collected Sasuke, not letting him protest.

During their meal Max had to remind Naruto several times not to try to eat and talk at the same time. She had also tried to get Sasuke to join in the conversation, trying to get a good dynamic going, though it was a long shot to try now. There was more likely to be this moment on a mission or something in which they all fuse in perfect harmony, gaining mutual respect for each other.

That's how it always went in books and films.

\----

Again Max made them all late back, the classroom was empty of everyone but Iruka.

"You're lucky you teacher hasn't turned up yet, you should really be more punctual." Hopefully this would be the last time he had to flog a dead horse.

It was only half an hour they had to wait. A familiar gravity defying head of hair poked through the door, followed by the rest of their teacher who looked a little sheepish behind his mask and more than a little familiar to Max.

"Team seven?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke sat up straighter in his seat, attempting to give a good impression, Naruto just beamed at the newcomer. Max tilted her head slightly before smirking. Kakashi took that as an affirmative.

"Meet me on the roof." The first of many orders he hoped they would obey. The team took their time at Max's suggestion, arriving on the roof to see their team leader reading a certain orange book. Max resisted the urge to steal it. They sat down on the roof waiting for Kakashi to acknowledge them.

When he didn't appear to want to, Max walked up to him and grabbed his book. Kakashi seemed to have learnt from the last time he was on the same team as Max and didn't let go of it, leading to a small tug of war. Eventually she gave up and poked his forehead while he was still distracted. She got a glare for her trouble.

"Introduce yourselves. Likes, dislikes hobbies etc." He hadn't specified who to start and didn't look like he was actually paying attention.

"You start!"

"My name is Kakashi, that's all you really need to know."

"Great example," Max muttered sarcastically.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" He was interrupted by a slap the back of his head.

"He's not deaf Naruto, use your indoor voice," Max grumbled.

"I like ramen; I like it when Iruka-sensei treats me to ramen at Ichiraku's and when Max trains with me. What I hate is when Max makes me train in the rain and when Laura leaves body parts on the kitchen table or in empty ramen cups without labelling them. My hobbies include training and playing pranks." Naruto paused for a breath here. Kakashi studied the blond, not quite what he had been expecting.

"My dream for the future is to become the next Hokage, and then the villagers would finally acknowledge me and give me the respect I deserve!" The blonde exclaimed, that earnt another smack to the back of his head.

Kakashi's visible eye widened remarkably at the boy's announcement. 'Well... he most certainly turned out interesting...' He thought. He turned to the other male of the group wondering if he would be anything like his brother. Sasuke took that as a hint it was his turn.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are many things I hate, and few I like. My dream? Well it's not a dream, more of an ambition. One that I will one day accomplish: restore my clan and kill a certain someone." He concluded in his best brooding manner that caused the Max to roll her eyes and Naruto to glare.

"Last kid."

"My name is Max Hakie. I like stuff. My dislikes are unimportant. My plan for the future is to have adventures and kick ass with some serious style, and help Naruto achieve his goals." said Max. In all Naruto was the only one who had actually named his likes and dislikes, the others evading it in some way.

"Interesting, Max would you mind removing your Henge?" inquired Kakashi.

"Yes I would mind." Max said in a tone that implied that the subject should not be pushed. Kakashi frowned at that but shrugged it off, he would investigate later.

"Okay. Tomorrow, team seven has their first mission." Kakashi announced, both boys seemed to brighten. Max knew what was coming.

"What is it? Rescuing a princess, killing bandits?"

"Survival training." Any excitement was now gone, killed like a gunshot to the heart.

"But we did that at the academy," Naruto moaned as if that would magically change his mind.

"This is a test to weed out those who don't have what it takes to be on a genin team," said Max, getting stares from the others. Kakashi looked vaguely impressed for all of about five seconds.

"Meet me at training ground 5, 6am tomorrow and don't eat or you'll puke." With that he disappeared, only then did Max remember she hadn't actually stolen his book.

\----

The next day a bright blue sky met the team as they sat under a tree, waiting for Kakashi. They had turned up at 9am at Max's insistence due to the fact she knew how late he would be. He turned up only half an hour later and produced two bells.

"Each of you has to get a bell if you want to pass."

"But there are only two bells!" protested Sasuke.

"You skills of observation are truly amazing. I bow to the almighty skills of the great Uchiha." There was so much sarcasm dripping from those words. Max hadn't even opened her eyes yet, having been sleeping since she got to the training ground.

It seemed to have left said Uchiha speechless. He didn't have anything to retort with which only frustrated him more.

"Imagination could do with some work though", Max commented with a smirk noting the lack of response.

"Begin!" yelled Kakashi, catching them off guard, they all scampered off to plan. Except Max who just continued to lie in the middle of the training ground as she had been since she turned up.

She observed the rest of her team, considering helping them. She sent out a clone to each of them as a token gesture of help, but mostly observed how they performed under pressure. A little while later she felt Kakashi standing over her.

"Aren't you going to try?" Kakashi asked. Max smirked, her clones, now slightly less than visible, had returned to her and one of them nabbed the bells while Kakashi was focused on her.

"I already have." Max held out a hand and the clone dropped the two bells into her hand. Kakashi's visible eye bugged out as he reached for where they were supposed to be.

"Interesting, what are you going to do with them?"

"I was going to destroy them." Sasuke and Naruto had picked that time to finally reach them, both looking a bit dishevelled.

"What?"

"We either pass as a team or we fail as a team, no middle ground." Max stated, swinging the bells around her finger.

There was a moment of silence as that sunk in. Kakashi turned to the two boys.

"Do you two agree with her?" he asked. Naruto nodded feverently, he knew Max had done this before so she must know what to say. All eyes turned to Sasuke, Max still wasn't sure how he was going to react. He still was trying out the lone wolf approach.

Grudgingly he nodded in agreement.

"You all pass then, all thanks to Max." Kakashi didn't seem all that happy with how they had passed but at least they had recognised that they needed to present a united front. "You start actual missions tomorrow."

"Sweet!" said Naruto brightly as the other two just shook their heads with disbelief. Max actually groaned, D-ranks for the next few months was going to majorly suck.

On her way home Max sensed someone following her, she ducked into an alley way, not wanting a public confrontation.

"I did wonder if it was actually you. Didn't expect to see you as a genin though." Kakashi was casually leaning against the wall with his book open.

"I didn't expect it either. It was the only way to be a ninja again though." There was a long silence.

"Fancy catching up?" Kakashi asked, he felt a bit guilty about not finding her after the events that tore their team apart. It would have been easy for him with his clearance and Sarutobi's sympathy towards the remaining members of the team. He just hadn't wanted to, forgetting the team had existed had seemed like the best option at the time. He hadn't known how Max was coping and if his reappearance would trigger her rage mode.

"Sure. You can tell me all about the teams you've been failing."


	24. Wave arc Part 1

"There is nothing that can go wrong," Max insisted. The rest of team seven were stood behind her as she worked on getting them a C-rank mission after several months of D-ranks.

"Where have I heard that before?" Sarutobi didn't look impressed. In all fairness Max had said that multiple times in her previous run through as a shinobi. Not all of those missions had gone as well as they should have.

"That's not cool. Most of those were not my fault." Sasuke seemed the only one shocked by Max's behaviour towards the village leader. He was also the only person in the room who didn't know about Max's track record. "Besides, this is only a C-rank."

"Fine, I have one you can have. Bring him in." Sarutobi ordered to the chunin by the door. The first thing that entered the room was a bottle of alcohol. Max's eyes widened with anticipation, she knew this mission. She was so going to have to eat her words now.

"You are to escort Tazuna to his home and watch over him while he finishes his project. You are to protect him from muggers and thieves," said the Hokage, reading from the mission scroll.

"I'm going to be protected by these brats? Some protection, they barely look old enough to walk. The girl doesn't even look like she could hurt a fly."

"Don't kill the person who you're supposed to protect," Kakashi quietly warned Max who was taking that personally, Max pouted and replaced her kunai to its holster.

"Some advice old man, don't annoy those hired to protect you." Max hissed, not expecting to be heard.

"You shouldn't worry since I'm a high level ninja and I will be ready to step in," explained Kakashi.

\----

The next day they met at the gate ready to go. They started off at a steady pace, Max was keeping an eye out for anything strange, Naruto was chattering on about something but Max had learnt to zone out his voice. She wondered if either of her team mates would get offended if she started throwing fire at them to relieve her boredom.

After about half a day Max noticed the puddle. An evil thought crossed her mind, she took a running jump and splashed into the puddle. This caused the genjutsu to fall and the two demon brothers to appear even though they were slightly disorientated. They still reacted quickly still having surprise mostly on their side.

They wrapped the chains around Kakashi and sliced him into chunks, shocking the boys. Max rolled her eyes, so much for ready to jump in. The brothers turned their focus to Naruto and the bridge builder behind him.

"Sasuke, Naruto move," she yelled as she countered the impending attacks by running under the bladed chain, hooking it with her scythe and dragging it with her, away from her team.

Both boys sprang into action, taking up defensive positions. The demon Nins ran at Max, deeming her a threat. Borrowing from the original story line Max used a combo of kunai and shuriken to attach the chain to a tree.

Both her team mates jumped on the chain and kicked the demon Nins dislodging them from their chain. They headed for Tazuna only to get stopped by as Max stood in front of them, her scythe spinning around her hand, the force turning into a gust that threw the two Nins back into a tree. Kakashi took that moment to appear and tie them to the tree to the surprise of all but Max.

"Kakashi, you're alive," yelled Naruto, Max held his collar to prevent him from actually hugging Kakashi, no matter how funny it would be.

"Duh, Kakashi owned." Apparently five weeks was long enough for them to get used to her slang as no one gave her a weird look.

The group moved on and everything returned to the boring tedium of travelling.

"Tazuna we need to talk. You hired us against bandits not ninjas this could push the ranking up and deceiving us isn't looked upon favourably," Kakashi said when they we safely on the boat taking them to Wave.

Tazuna started to lay on a thick sob story about why he had lied to them and how his village was in trouble and his bridge would help it. It was clearly fooling no one.

"If we stay on the mission will you shut up," snapped Max when she got sick of the attempted emotional manipulation. At least when she guilt tripped people it was it was done in a decent way using subtlety. The rest of the team agreed. They had got off the boat and continued on the way to the village.

"Keep you eyes open there may be more ninjas of a higher level," warned Kakashi, his hand unconsciously coming up to his covered eye, running his fingers over the metal of his headband.

Naruto was itching for a fight, for every movement he twitched, scaring a rabbit when he launched a kunai at it. A white rabbit. In the middle of spring…

"Get down!" was the yell from both Kakashi and Max. Everyone hit the deck as a massive sword flew over their heads. Naruto withdrew a kunai and readied himself to fight. Max placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head.

"No Naruto, this person is better than anyone you've faced, we should protect the old man," said Max directing him at the aforementioned old man.

Kakashi stepped forward and moved his head band to show the Sharingan. He had not been expecting someone of this high level and wanted this over with before the rest of the team got hurt.

"Ah Kakashi the Copy Cat ninja, I'm flattered you're using your famed eye so soon."

"Zabuza, demon of the Bloody Mist."

"I'm hurt that you don't remember me," Max pouted. She wasn't surprised but the tension was annoying and not good for her team mates.

"When have I ever met you? I only tend to know about people who are famous or I've killed." Max only smirked in response. He would remember her soon enough.

A thick mist materialised and the atmosphere was building. Max cast a look at her team mates, they were still of all intent and purpose, green. They'd never encountered a real fight and the build-up might trigger one of them.

"Eight points," Zabuza's voice floated through the mist. Max was having difficulty tracking him with the chakra infused into the haze.

"Boring. The eight points, really? Very ambiguous, leaves to much as a variable and no marks for originality." Max commented. "3 out of 10." There was a muted slap as Kakashi facepalmed.

A large burst of chakra pushed the fog away to create a battleground by the water. Kakashi and Zabuza were facing off while the younger kids kept a defence around the old man. During the fog Max had created some less than visible clones and spread them out in the surrounding area.

Max was itching to join in with the fight but ultimately she knew it would leave the others vulnerable with their lack of combat experience. Besides, Kakashi would be fine for the moment.

As that thought passed through her head Kakashi was engulfed by a ball of water held by Zabuza, a clone was eyeing them up.

"Run! The water clone can only go so far from the original." Max wasn't sure if Kakashi had actually forgotten what she was capable of or was just choosing to forget.

"Feck no, I don't intend to lose any of my team. Not again," growled Max removing her scythe from her back. Both Naruto and Sasuke were shocked, they had never seen her so serious.

"Naruto, do you have any ideas?" asked Max, she might as well give them some experience instead of taking all the fun.

"Yes… let's go wild!" Max grinned as Naruto created a small army of clones, joined by Max's, a bunch were left by Tazuna. Sasuke looked at them hoping for some hint as to what he should do. He didn't have the huge chakra advantage Max and Naruto had and his own Sharingan was still dormant. He felt a bit inferior for the first time in a while. Though at the rate the clones were disappearing it wouldn't be long before they were all dispelled.

That's when the fire started being thrown around. Max's clones had built up a small network, using her chemical based fire technique to build up a huge fire ball, each clone adding the remaining chakra they had been allocated while rebounding it to the next in the chain. It was almost impossible to tell which clone it would go to next. The result was a very fast moving ball of fire aiming directly at the original Zabuza, having managed to bypass the clone through the chain.

With no way to dodge and not get horrifically burnt Zabuza did the only thing he could and moved, freeing Kakashi from the water prison. Max restrained herself from cheering, she hadn't been entirely sure that it would work.

It had still managed to distract her enough that Zabuza's clone had managed to sneak up behind her, and now she had big-ass sword digging into her throat, not quite enough pressure to cut through all the layers of skin, just the top few.

"Didn't stick with a sword then kid?" he whispered, with the bandages covering half his face lip reading would be almost impossible for the others who were keeping back.

"It didn't feel right."

"You look different," he mused. Max smirked and grabbed his leg with a flame filled hand, her other hand pushing the sword from her neck. She preferred to have a cut hand than a cut throat.

Taking advantage of Zabuza's pain and burning leg Kakashi took over the fight, bringing it back over the water. It would stop Naruto and Sasuke from getting too involved as they hadn't learnt water walking. Max took the opportunity to staunch the blood coming from her palm and bandage it. She watched the Sharingan in action, a pang of pain in her chest, remembering the times Itachi had used it against her. She knew the feelings Zabuza had as his movements were mimicked exactly to the point Kakashi was ahead of him.

Just before the tidal wave of water Max dragged the old man out of its path into the trees, hoping Naruto and Sasuke had the sense to also move.

"So can that eye see the future?" Zabuza asked, as he leaned against a tree, completely wiped of energy.

"Yes and yours is death." As if on cue two sebon pierced Zabuza's neck. A hunter nin jumped down between then and the apparently dead body, making sure they couldn't get too close.

"I'm sorry to rob you of the kill but he needed to be dealt with, I've been tracking him for many months and you gave me the opportunity I needed," explained the hunter nin. Max rolled her eyes at the obvious lie, but she would let it slide. If she changed things now she wouldn't have any idea of how this would end. The hunter nin grabbed the body and disappeared.

Not a minute later Kakashi collapsed from exertion. Naruto created some clones to carry him to Tazuna's house after Max had moved the headband back so he wouldn't waste any more chakra when he woke.

\----

Max had woken up Sasuke and Naruto up early, ready to give them a kick start in the tree climbing. For some reason Sasuke didn't believe her. Naruto just didn't want to try again.

"Tree climbing?" echoed the boys.

"With no hands."

"But that's impossible," said Sasuke examining the tree.

"Stupid small minded boys," muttered Max shaking her head.

"Well if you think it's possible, prove it."

"Ok." Max walked up to the nearest trees and calmly started to walk up, Sasuke looked annoyed, his ego had been stomped on a lot recently.

"Since you obviously need help, I would advise you to focus on what you're doing not what going on around you at the moment," suggested Max, she tossed a kunai at each of them and heading to the house. She had tried to teach it to Naruto before but he hadn't got it and she was hoping with a bit of friendly competition he might get it.

Back at the house Kakashi had woken up only to find his team missing, he had been panicking until Max jumped in through a window.

"Sup Inu."

"I'm not Inu anymore, you know that."

"Would you prefer I called you 'Kashi, I mean face it your name is realllllllllllly long."

"Have you had coffee this morning?" said Kakashi avoiding the question.

"No, but I know something you don't know."

"What?"

"Zabuza's alive." Kakashi thought for a moment, reviewing the fight from yesterday, then nodded in agreement.

"That would make sense; we need to train the rest of the team for the next time." It wouldn't do for it to just be Kakashi and Max fighting, it could get the other two hurt. Especially with at least one unknown accomplice.

"Way ahead of you buddy, they're currently trying to walk up trees," Max said proudly.

"Ok then you can look after Tazuna today." Max's face fell, of course she would get that job.

"But it's boring!"

"It's about a B -rank mission, of course it's boring. But you're still my subordinate and I can still order you to do it. Not a clone."

"You know I hate you, right? Persuade the old Hokage dude to give us higher rank missions more often then I'll go with no more fuss."

"Deal." Max poofed away to follow Tazuna who had only just left. She had been planning just to send a clone out to watch over him but being ordered to actually watch him was almost painful.

On the bridge Max was occupying herself by reviewing the fight, the many viewpoints from her clones had given her a lot of data to process. The snowballing fire had worked well but had plenty of room for refinement and expansion.

Once again she was thinking through the elements, this time to find out what would beat Haku's un-meltable ice. She wasn't having much luck, she thought back to her chemistry lessons about water and ice but none of it was applicable to this since it was chakra infused.

\----

It had been three days since they had got to land of waves, Sasuke and Naruto were progressing well with tree climbing. Max had given them a technique scroll to practice as a reward after showing them the basics, despite the unique techniques she used, she did know others, she just preferred her own.

On the day before the final battle Max reached a breakthrough, she had been thinking of the wrong science. She needed physics. If she got the ice to vibrate as a specific frequency then hopefully it would shatter, this also led her to realize she could just shoot it and hope it doesn't ricochet too badly. Still was only an idea, one that probably wouldn't work anyway

She hadn't used her firearms much, sometimes seemed like cheating, and sometimes she didn't have the opportunity to summon and so relying on them was bad. Having something like that as a back-up was very useful if she could summon.

Max and Sasuke were walking to the bridge playing a game Max taught him, Sasuke was losing spectacularly but couldn't figure out how Max was doing it. Kakashi was somewhere nearby watching, he knew Max would get him to play and he would lose too. Naruto had managed to exhaust himself working on his techniques, so they had let him sleep in. Max had given him a much more chakra-heavy one than Sasuke's but Max had hoped he'd learnt where his limit was

At the bridge they found the workers beaten up. A thick mist was hanging by the bridge, ready to move in at a moments notice.

"We meet again," said the ominous voice of Zabuza, not yet visible. The only one who didn't flinch when he appeared was Max. She'd managed to get a faint idea of where he had been using FA.

"Damn that's clichéd," muttered Max shaking her head, this drew all the attention to her and she glared.

"You still have that strange streak in your personality," commented Zabuza, drawing questioning looks from her team. He created ten water clones only for them to get destroyed by Sasuke and his improved speed. "His speed rivals yours Haku."

"Let me fight him and show him the true meaning of speed." and with that both Haku and Sasuke attacked moving along the bridge.

"Max look after Tazuna," ordered Kakashi.

"Why don't I get to fight the missing Nin? It's not like it would be hard," whined Max, her fingers twitching slightly, ready to grab her scythe.

"Max, I outrank you," he said firmly. Max rolled her eyes, she could not wait to get back to at least jounin level.

"Not fair. I used to have the same rank as you. It's not even my fault I got demoted." Max ranted as she walked over to the bridge builder pouting. The mist that had been hovering around the bridge moved in.

The final fight was about to begin and Max was stuck on the sidelines.


	25. Chapter 25

Max casually stood in front of old man Tazuna in a vaguely defensive manner, the blade of her scythe held over her head, giving her a more intimidating silhouette. If anything really bad did happen then it was unlikely to get past her. That didn’t make her any less annoyed about being pushed to the sidelines. Even Sasuke got to fight and Max was better than him. She would get her revenge.

So she was waiting, she knew what was supposed to happen but anything she had done might have changed it for the worse right now. So she decided to wait for Gatou to turn up and work from there. She didn’t have to wait long before Naruto turned up. She turned back to watch Zabuza and Kakashi’s fight and using a shadow clone pumped full of as much chakra she henged it and replaced it with the real one and immediately pinned Zabuza. She held a knife to his neck in a way reminiscent of the last time they met.

“What do you want brat?”

“I want to offer you a deal.” Max growled, pushing the knife in a bit deeper. She needed to be taken seriously, and when someone could kill you, things were generally considered a bit more carefully.

“What deal?” The movement from his words caused the knife to break the skin and a vivid red line appeared under the blade.

“I know things you don’t, like the fact Gatou is planning to kill you and Haku if you complete your mission. He only hired you with the hope you’d get yourself killed while killing the old man. I propose that when Gatou turns up we kill him. If you want I have a spare room back at Konoha…”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Gatou’s a slimeball and there is a good chance of you dying if you continue to fight. You don’t waste good.”

“So you’re telling me you are willing to save us.” Max didn’t blame him, in the same position she too would be sceptical.

“I would be willing to not kill you here.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“Why not? You have nothing to lose.” Max loosened her grip on the tall nin removing her blade from his throat. Zabuza thought for a moment, then held out his hand.

“Deal.” They shook on it and sat back to wait for Gatou. Kakashi had been slacking anyway since becoming a jounin and could do with a Max style workout. It had nothing to do with wanting payback for making her sit out. It wasn’t long before the mist cleared showing Haku just about to jump in front of the clone. 

Max’s eyes widened, she had forgotten about that. She forced her clone to disappear and everyone else stood in shock as the clone Zabuza disappeared. Haku stooped in his tracks barely avoiding a chest full of lightning.

“Oh don’t stop on my account,” said a voice from the end of the bridge. The ninjas turned to see a small army of mercenaries and other hired thugs with a man in a suit leading them. “Where’s Zabuza. I imagine he’s been killed. He never seemed to be a demon, more like a baby demon,” mocked Gatou.

“You want a demon? I’ll show you demon,” said a voice from the side of the bridge where Zabuza was crouching, completely unharmed much to Haku relief. Zabuza held his massive sword out and disappeared, appearing just the other side of Gatou and everyone watched as Gatou’s head slid off his body, landing on the floor with a sicking thump.

“You killed our meal ticket so I suppose well have to plunder the village.” Thugs seemed stupider the more of them there were.

“You and who’s army?” said Max creating her army of clones. Kakashi noticed the old team was part of it, standing proudly behind Max. Naruto and Kakashi contributed as well and both Zabuza and Haku stood near by with weapons ready.

An arrow flew through the air landing in front of the thugs.

“Don’t forget us,” said Inari, all the villagers stood behind him wielding anything they could get their hands on. The thugs thought for a second then moved back to the boat they had come by some jumping over the edge just to get away from the imposing forces.

\----

With no more threat the bridge was quickly finished. Team seven were stood on the bridge and Tazuna, Inari and his mother were stood their saying their goodbyes, reminding the team they could visit at any point.

Behind the team were Zabuza and Haku, they had decided to at least see if Max could get them a place in the Leaf village, it would be good for them. 

Max watched Naruto and Inari said goodbye she knew they had gotten close after the incident Naruto had snapped about being Inari being a tragic emo kid and to suck it up.

\----

Sarutobi wasn’t sure if he was impressed or if he should be giving Max another psych eval.

“So you want me to allow Zabuza, a missing nin from Mist who actively took part in a coup d'etat, and Haku his accomplice, to become Leaf ninjas?” Sarutobi asked, wondering if someone has slipped a hallucinogen into his pipe. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Yup, Haku’s an amazing medic ninja and you’re always complaining that you don’t have enough. Zabuza, well it’s better to have him on our side and not against us, besides they’re awesome people.” 

Kakashi was probably also wondering if Max needed another psych eval. Zabuza had tried to kill her, and could have easily succeeded, yet here she was giving them glowing praise. She didn’t do that for anyone unless it was sarcastic.

Of course he wasn’t jealous.

“I swear you adopt these people like puppies,” Sarutobi sighed, rubbing his temples.

“So is that a yes?” asked Max hopefully.

“I will permit it but both are on probation for a period of six months I assume they’ll be living with you.”

“Yes there’s enough room since we last moved. I owe you one, see ya old man.” With that she jumped out the window and found the two ninjas in question by the memorial stone. It had been the first place she could think of away from the busy village.

“You can stay but you’re on probation for six months and you’re staying with me,” said Max in one breath, Haku cracked out a smile, Zabuza trying to hide his relief under a mask of indifference and of course the bandages that covered his face.

\----

Meanwhile the Hokage had decided to send team 7.5 on a new mission which would basically be relaxing. Far away. Where they couldn’t cause trouble.

They had been asked to send some ninjas to join a small group of explorers who were travelling west of wind country, there would be sand ninjas as well but since sand was forever getting downsized they wanted others to be sure.

So a week later, team 7.5 along with the sand siblings were heading west in the desert with seven archaeologists and explorers. Max and Gaara were really happy since they hadn’t had a chance to see each other for a while, they had spent the beginning of the trip catching up and being introduced to his siblings who were amazed by the effect of one person.

They had been walking for a few more days; their mission was to explore the far west had the whole team bored as well as the sand siblings who were actually really nice when you got to know them. 

They were west of wind country and had gone through a county called Xing and some rubble which used to be a settlement of some point

“Hey I see something ahead,” exclaimed Naruto.

“It’s called a mirage,” mutter Max, this mission was really getting on her nerves.

“No it looks real.”

They head to the shapes to find a village by a mine, in Max’s mind something was familiar, the gloomy faces the sign on the building, the short blond kid leaning on a suit case out side, the suit of amour handing him a tray.

“ _Shite, not another one._ ” said Max unknowing in English. This caught the attention of the brothers.

“ _Who are you? And where do you come from?_ ” asked the blond, who Max recognized as Ed.

“Max, who is this?” asked Kakashi.

“Crap. I don’t know personally but I know of them and we have a problem that he speaks a different language to you.”

“ _Who are you?_ ” repeated Ed, getting a bit annoyed at being ignored.

“Do you know the language?” Kakashi knew better than to ask where she had learnt it, the other people in the team were also curious but most knew Max wasn’t going to tell.

“Yes.”

“ _Who are you!?_ ” yelled Ed who was tired of being ignored.

“ _My name’s Max, this is my ninja team. We come from village hidden in the leaves and the trio over behind me are from the village hidden in the sand and the others are explorers. What about you?_ ” said Max in flawless English, she was glad it was a language she knew well, she could only imagine what it would have been like it it had been anything else. German might nor have been terrible, she knew some of that and French.

“ _Never heard of it, I'm Ed this is my brother Al, we’re alchemists and we come from Resembool. Why are you here?_ ” Max could almost feel the hostile interest from the kid.

“ _We're here to explore. We come from the far east of here across the desert and beyond that,_ ” explained Max, she was itching to get this over with so she could explain to her team without seeming too rude.

“ _How come you speak my language?_ ”

“ _My business not yours, would you give away secrets?_ ”

“ _No, I suppose not. Why don’t your friends speak the language?_ ” enquired Al politely before his brother could respond with something potentially insulting.

“ _Because they never learnt it._ ”

“ _You do know you’ll need to come and meet the higher up to discuss stuff like why you’re here and potential alliances._ ”

“ _I know and I’m sure we’ll be able to come to an agreement._ Guys we may have to do some negotiating,” said Max switching languages easily.

“Okay, but nothing we say will be concrete,” said Kakashi and the sand trio nodded.

“ _Take us to your leader,_ ” smirked Max, she'd been dying to say that, between them, she, Laura and Louise had a list of movies quotes they wanted to say at least once.

“ _It may be a while since I have business here._ ” The teams nodded after Max translated. Only then did they notice they had company of the mine workers.

“ _Hey dad more customers, and they don’t look like state alchemists,_ ” squeaked the small kid excitedly.

“ _We don’t need a place to stay, we camp out and have plenty of food,_ ” said Max, they also had no way of paying, so this made it easier.

“ _Well, well, well what do we have here, not quite the usual filth but filth all the same._ ” said a tall guy wearing a blue uniform of sorts. He oozed superiority complex.

“Dude, he has a strange moustache,” commented Naruto causing the two teams to snigger, which only enraged the man more.

“ _What are you low life’s laughing at?_ ”

“ _How stupid you mustache is,_ ” 

“ _It seems these children need to be taught a lesson_ ” 

“ _It seems that you don’t know who we are, were ninjas, trained in the art of silent killing, we could kill you before you took a step forward_ ” said Max with all the arrogance she could muster, twirling her scythe in a menacing way.

“ _Ninjas are only myths and stories._ ”

“ _Care to test that opinion_ ” The rest of her team withdrew weapons. The man paled, pulling out a handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead nervously.

“ _No, my business is not with you but with these miners_ ” he said as he pushed passed and into the pub. Max translated most of the conversation for the people in their group who laughed. They noticed the conversation going on inside and saw Ed walk inside. Not long later the man and his men walked out followed by Ed.

“So what should we do?” asked Naruto.

“Stay and see what happens but since we are visitors we shouldn’t interfere,” said Kakashi wisely.

The others agreed and they walked to the outskirts of the area and set up tents, Max was sharing with Temari, since they were the only girls. Every one else were in their tents except Gaara who was sitting guard.

“How come you’re so nice to my brother?” Temari asked as they started to settle in.

“We’re friends, I don’t just hate someone for something they can’t control. He is more like me than he knows, besides I think I was his first friend around his age.”

“Well I’m grateful for you being there for him. Kankuro and I were always kept away from him. Who knows how he might have been otherwise.” 

“I just wish I could help him more but because I’m a leaf Nin I don’t get much time of to go see him.”

“He talks about you sometimes. Well when he isn’t threatening to kill someone. He sometimes talks about the stars and the pictures they make.”

“…” Max was silent she didn’t know what to say for once. Let’s take a moment to remember this historic moment.

“I reckon you’re more of a sister to him than I am,” Temari said almost sadly.

“I guess so, I need to get some air, if I don’t come back it probably means I feel asleep outside.” said Max, the conversation was getting a bit awkward. She stepped outside and jumped onto a near by branch and watched the sun go down. She didn’t notice Gaara appear beside her until she felt his hand on her arm.

“You have the shichibi don’t you,” whispered Gaara.

“Yes, I only found out recently,” replied Max. They watched the mining village in silence but it was more comfortable than back in the tent. It was getting close to midnight when they saw a flash of orange and Max knew that the man's men had set the pub alight. Max dashed off ready to dowse it in water to at least stop the blaze. But by the time she got there, there wasn’t much left to save.


	26. Chunin Exams Take 2

The morning light broke through as the deal was signed, the miners were now the owners of the mine and everyone was getting sloshed despite protests of Kakashi. He obviously hadn't heard on what Max had done with her old team, plus Laura and Louise. They had gotten together once or twice, or more, and she could tell anyone that Itachi was hilarious when drunk, she already knew that Lou and Laura were.

But now they were on the train to where Ed had to check in with his boss.

Max knew this train ride. It was the one when it got high jacked. This was going to be fun, only she couldn't scare people so she had sealed her scythe. The sand siblings had henged their weapons into things that didn't look so suspicious.

The rest of Max's team were talking in a set of seats. The explorers were being strange and gawking at everything outside. Max dug out her MP3player and put on some music, she didn't like trains they were boring and made her sick if she paid to much attention to outside.

" _Max? Are you ok. You don't look to good._ " She heard, looking round she saw Al looking concerned. Well, she assumed, it was hard to tell visually is a suit of armour looked concerned.

" _I hate trains,_ " was Max's short reply; the other ninjas had taken to trains easily but Max never had liked them.

" _What your home like?_ "

" _It's amazing. It's a massive village surrounded by trees really thick and deep. There's this cliff with our past leaders carved into it that overlooks the village, the view from the top is amazing at sunset. What about you?_ "

" _I come from a small village so there wasn't much around and it was mostly fields, everyone knew each other it was great._ " Talking was good, it was distracting.

" _Does Ed always sleep on trains?_ "

" _Yes_ "

" _He looks so peaceful, but I imagine he's always active when he's awake, never stops to take a breather._ " Just like everyone else Max knew.

" _It's like you already know him,_ " joked Al.

" _I know people like him,_ " Max shrugged. They both jumped slightly as they heard a gun shot.

" _Do as your told and no one gets hurt,_ " said one of the armed men. Max quickly translated and had to smother laughter as the ninjas laughed.

"Why would we do that we could easily kick their asses?" asked Temari with a cocky smirk.

"We might get some innocent person killed, remember this isn't home they have different rules," explained Max. They watched as one of the men poked the slumbering Ed with a gun and Max translated the conversation. They all found Ed reaction to someone commenting on his height amusing. They saw how Ed handled it and decided to help, only using as much force as the people native to this land did.

"You guys spread out, anymore of these guys you disable. Do NOT kill them. Put then in an empty compartment and someone keep and eye on them," Max ordered, she didn't want a political incident. The ninjas disappeared much to everyone's amazement.

" _How did they do that?_ " asked Ed curiously.

" _Once again it's a secret, don't worry though everything will be fine, we're trained in these situations_ " said Max

" _Why would kids be trained in this kind of style?_ "

" _When you're a kid you absorb knowledge like a sponge, so training starts young. Besides we don't get dangerous missions till we're a higher rank,_ " Max explained.

" _So its a bit like a military?_ "

" _Yup. We should probably get to the front of the train make sure everyone's safe._ " Ed nodded and they moved down the train, five minutes later and it was completely safe and about ten minutes after that they were at the station. She immediately noticed the sea of people in uniform and the fact Roy was there, she laughed inwardly as she remembered how she had come up with her fire technique.

The rest of the teams joined her on the platform and Ed brought Roy over to them.

" _So only one of you speaks our language? I will need them to be translator,_ " he commanded.

" _That would be me._ " Max informed him, stepping forward. She giggled at Mustang's face as she heard him mutter _'damn prodigy kids'_. They were ushered to a couple of cars and taken to the base and introduced to Mustang's crew.

The talks had been brief and they had decided to continue the talks back in Konoha via Suna and it would give them the opportunity to watch ninjas in action at the chunin exams. The journey back was boring but when they got back to Suna they had some talks with the Kazekage. The sand trio were taken aside and told about the chunin exams and their role in it. The group expanded as the other sand genin joined the group as they headed for the exams.

\----

The first exam

Yesterday Max had been briefed on what she would be doing and Laura had been asked to help translate. Max would be taking the exam again but also looking out for potential dangers, thanks to some not so subtle hints Max had dropped Konoha was prepared for an invasion.

Max hadn't been too happy when she had been told to take the exam again.

"Why do I have to take the exam again? I passed once, I shouldn't have to repeat it."

"But the Uchiha kid needs a team to pass so the council wants you to take part."

"Have I ever told you how I think that the council are stupid bigoted arseholes?"

"On multiple occasions. I can't over rule a unanimous vote, but I'll make you a deal, you get to the finals and I'll make you chunin and give you a different team."

"Deal." That was how she was persuaded to take part.

\----

They had got to the academy and were walking up to room 301 when Sasuke and Naruto move to the room with the genjutsu. Max saw Izumo and Kotetsu and couldn't resist jumping on them.

"Guys I haven't seen you in ages" she squealed, both chunin hugged her back.

"You have to take the exam again?" asked Izumo puzzled.

"Yup."

"But I thought you pas…" Izumo was quickly silenced.

"You think I don't know that? But I have my orders and a team that barely works together." Behind them Sasuke was getting annoyed, they would be late for the exam if this continued.

"Come on Max lets go to room 301 I bet the genjutsu didn't fool you for a second," declared Sasuke pompously.

"Way to ruin it, this is to weed out those who can't even tell it was there idiot. Even Naruto didn't speak up about it," growled Max, she'd hoped to have gotten rid of that kind of attitude by now, but apparently not. She hugged Izumo and Kotetsu again and walked past her team mates. She completely ignored the encounter with Neji and Lee. But she did want to watch the fight so followed; both Naruto and Max got freaked out by the turtle thing and Gai and the sun set. They ran while they had the chance.

"We should go back for Sasuke, we still need him for our team," said Max.

"But the sunset and grossness."

"How about we rock paper scissors it?"

"1, 2, 3."

"Rock" said Max, her hand clenched in a fist.

"Paper" said Naruto at the same time, his hand flat.

"Damn." Max walked back to the room and dragged a twitching Sasuke out. They eventually got to room 301 and saw the people ready to take the exams; they saw the sand trio and waved. Sasuke got glomped by Ino.

Naruto and Kiba had who has the biggest ego competition also known as talking. Not long later Kabuto came over and told them to be quiet and promptly showed them his info cards. Max was itching to get her hands on them, half so she could look at them, the other half to burn them.

"What do you have on Rock Lee from the leaf and Max Hakie of the leaf?" Sasuke asked.

"Dude! I'm you team mate, why do you want to find out more on me?"

"Right first up Rock Lee, teacher is Might Gai team mates Tenten and Neji Hyuuga excels at taijutsu the rest is non existent." Max was wondering if she could burn her card before he could read it out, she had no idea how much of her career was on there. "Max Hakie, teacher… ok this is confusing, scratch that the whole card is strange, it's like she's two different people, first persona shows that she graduated years ago after six months of the academy and was on a team under Yuri Hakie, who is now deceased, with team mates Hana Inuzuka and…Itachi Uchiha." Max could feel the glare from Sasuke at the mention of his brother. "She passed the chunin exams at... Four?! Jounin exams not long later and became ANBU but I don't know about her code name or her team. The second persona is she passed with your year on your team. Stats: she had some strange techniques that are unheard of and a strange summoning weapon but has a couple of high ranking techniques as well, taijutsu is pretty high and currently uses a scythe, genjutsu is also pretty average but from rumours they are really disturbing," finished Kabuto. With a sweet smile Max asked to see her card and prompt burnt it pretty explosively.

"I am not letting the whole world know this information. I'm sure you would not like people knowing all of your dirty secrets," Max growled and smirked internally when she saw his face briefly show panic. The sound nins took that opportunity to attack Kabuto. Ibiki interrupted it and told everyone to pick a number behind him stood Louise who waved at Max. Max ended up at the back next to a sand nin.

\----

Once again she decided not to listen and draw on the test paper, only then did she remember a sport from her old AS chemistry lessons. After each lesson just before the bell the boys in her class would rub out letters on the board to make rude words.

She remembered from that why analysis should NEVER be shortened to the first four letters.

So she spent the next half hour doing just that to her test paper. The next fifteen minutes she spent randomly setting light to some of the examiners clipboards or throwing her pencil into the ceiling tiles and catching it when it fell or even spit ball war with Louise.

Several teams got kicked out and most were surprise Max hadn't got kicked out, no one realised she wasn't cheating but just mucking around.

Soon 45 minutes had been up and the final question was about to be given. She had briefly told her team not to give up no matter the odds.

Ibiki had just finished the explanation when the window shattered and a ball of cloth unravelled to say Anko, chunin exams part two, examiner, which was followed by Anko appearing.

"Alright maggots I'm Anko, I'll be the examiner for the second part of the chunin exams"

"No frigging duh, it says on the cloth," some bright spark annonced, said bright spark had a few kunai implanted into the wall behind him. Then his cloths fell apart, this caused most of the room to laugh.

"Meet up at training ground 44 tomorrow at mid day don't be late or else," said Anko and dismissed the exam hopefuls. Outside Max high tailed it home to avoid Sasuke who she knew would have questions about her old team. She was sitting on her bed when someone knocked on the door, she heard Laura get it.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Max turned to see Sasuke by her door, he was practically shaking with rage. She couldn't blame him, it was sort of why she had been putting off telling him.

"I knew you would react like this," she said calmly.

"There were so many hints, like on the wave mission one of the clones looked like him with his mask, and when those two people mentioned you passing the exam before. I remember when I was small we went to see his chunin exams and I saw his team mates, but none of them looked like you, yet the other finalist had the same name as you and used some of the same techniques," he said rationalising the information, he had calmed down when he realized it had been under his nose for ages.

"I was under a Henge. It was for my own safety and the safety of those around me."

"Can you teach me some of the techniques, like the fire one?" Of course he wanted to know the fire one, Uchiha's commonly had affinities for fire.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I created that technique and it can't be copied unless it's understood, so it's the perfect technique against the Sharingan. Why would I teach it to someone who can then teach it to others? It's the same with my other techniques. Don't even ask about my summon weapons."

"What about you're other techniques, the ones you didn't create?" He was not going to let this go.

"I'll make you a deal. You act like a team mate and take that stick from your ass and work for what you get, then I'll teach you a couple of high levels but I'll be teaching Naruto as well." Sasuke knew she wouldn't budge from that and agreed he left her in peace. Max sigh in relief, it could have gone wrong in multiple ways.

\----

The next day team 7.5 met up at training ground 44 at 11:30, ready to face the test. Max was a bit nervous because of her knowledge of what would happen with snake face. The test was explained and they got their scroll, which Max took and waited by their gate; they had signed their forms and bantered with Anko.

Finally they were allowed in and they took off into the forest, their plan was just to steal any scrolls they could so they could trade their way out of tight spots, so instead of going straight to the centre they went around the edge. This would make it harder for people who had targeted them. Finally they stopped when Naruto needed to pee, Max had to shove him behind a bush.

"I don't need or want to see what you were going to do," she complained. Not long later he emerged when he was attacked by both Max and Sasuke

"What are you doing? I'm your team mate."

"Fine, answer this, what is the meaning of life?"

"Uh?"

"Wrong answer." They both tied up the impostor whose Henge dropped and found another heaven scroll. Behind the bush Naruto came out looking a bit sheepish.

"Yo Naruto what's the meaning of life?"

"42 duh." Max smirked, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy was definitely awesome, Sasuke just looked confused.

"We need a password; I'm only going to say this once so remember it, 'We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides out face and shades our eyes, this debt we pay to human guile, with torn and bleeding hearts we smile, and mouth with myriad subtleties'"

"Where did you get that from?" asked Sasuke.

"Why can't it be something simple like uh cheesy feet?"

"It's the beginning of a poem and no, the password will not be cheesy feet," said Max. They managed to get separated again, as Max knew they would, by a gust of wind. Naruto was nowhere in sight, then he jumped out the bushes

"Password" demanded Max, looking critically at him.

"We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides out face and shades our eyes, this debt we pay to human guile, with torn and bleeding hearts we smile, and mouth with myriad subtleties," answered Naruto, only to get bombarded by kunai.

"Naruto would never remember that." Another wind jutsu separated Sasuke and the fake Naruto from Max

The adrenaline started pumping in Max. She activated FA and headed towards old snake face who was far too close to Sasuke for her liking.

"Yo snakey, get lost or get fried!" called Max, Orochimaru just stared at her like she was crazy.

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to? What kind of ninja are you when you can't see?"

"Yup and you picked the wrong person to target, I'm done losing team mates." Max snarled as she grabbed her scythe from her back and charged it full of electricity, a nifty trick she'd discovered, ignoring the killer intent that was directed at her and Sasuke.

"When I'm done, he'll come to me for power."

"Not if I can help it." With that she leapt forward, in her head 'Don't stop me now' by Queen was playing, giving her a good backing track to her movements. Orochimaru ducked the blow and they battled it out, with Sasuke helping with his fire techniques, Naruto had turned up not long later but had a new seal over his old one. They attacked him with what they could when Sasuke dropped out from exhaustion. Max cursed loudly and started to move to defend.

Orochimaru sawhis opportunity and extended his neck ready to bite. Max saw this as her opportunity and jumped, her scythe ready to pierce his body. He shifted and she hit his arm almost severing it. Reversing the swing she went for another hit but this time it struck just before Orochimaru could place the cursed seal.

She hit his left lung and pushed all the electricity she could into the scythe, trying to fry him but his head snapped back into place and he looked into her eyes and yanked her scythe out and threw her into a tree.

"I haven't seen that scythe in many years, it one of the Hakie clans, yet you don't appear to be of the clan," he noted as if they were just having a pleasant conversation.

"Shut up!" growled Max, her Henge fell and her ears popped through her hair, she would need all the chakra she could muster. She leapt forward again ready to rip out his throat. They engaged in close combat each trading blows, each one being potentially lethal, now was not the time to hold back.

Max was tiring and she knew it, she was mainly running on adrenaline at this point and the only thing that kept her going was the fact she didn't want to loose more of her family. She had to get her team to safety, that kept her fighting. She hadn't been ANBU for nothing. She would have to use her last resort. She summoned her P-90s and fired for all she was worth, trying to keep her aim straight as he darted around. It tore his body to shreds but he still stood up, but turned to flee, much to Max's relief.

"This isn't the last of me, I will have what I rightfully deserve!" he declared before he vanished, Max knew better than to follow. Max almost collapsed in relief, but her teams safety was her top priority, she picked them up as best she could and took them to the tree hollow she had seen in the series. She laid them down and tried to make them comfortable.

She set up a few simple traps and more discreet ones. She wasn't going to sleep before she knewit was safe to do so. She reached into her pack and pulled out her energy drinks and downed three of them, she also made herself some coffee that she could sip at. This was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'We Wear the Mask' is a poem by Paul Dunbar first published in 1896


	27. Chunin Exams Take 2 Part 2

Morning seemed to come to fast for Max, her team mates hadn't woken up yet and she was running out of coffee. She saw a squirrel heading toward her and threw a kunai at it to scare it, unfortunately her aim was off due to all the caffeine and the kunai speared the squirrel, attaching it to the tree trunk behind the sound nins that were hiding. Then the exploding tag ignited, the sound nins only just made it out.

"Sasuke, Naruto if one of you two don't wake up soon I wont train either of you," she threatened. It fell on sleeping ears, she was all alone and she didn't like it. At least she had prevented Sasuke from getting the cursed seal.

In the corner of her eye she saw a movement; she directed a shuriken at it. Another squirrel bit the dust. In their hiding place the sound nins were getting worried, every squirrel they had sent at her had been killed. She was good at her job. By now Max had realised the sound nins were around.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are," she called, twirling a kunai round her finger. The three sound nins jumped out.

"You think you can beat us? It's three against one," one of them sneered.

"I know, I think I'll tie one of my hands behind my back to even the odds," said Max brightly, oh how she loved caffeine, it gave her the strangest retorts.

"You're mad, those are bad odds for you," said the same sound nin.

"I'm not mad, well not extremely mad, just a bit weird."

"Let's just kill her and be done with it," said the female sound nin. They moved forward only for the one who took point to fall into a pit trap.

"That's one strike," said Max as if she was announcing a ball game. One of them held out his arm which had some device with loads of holes and took another step forward to get in range, only to have a ton of treacle fall on him, his melody arm had the holes blocked and gummed up. Then, to add insult to injury, feathers floated down surrounding him, impairing his vision and sticking to the treacle.

What she didn't know was that he was allergic to feathers and had a massive rash forming as his airways started to close up. He collapsed on the floor choking, strange. Max wondered why he wasn't allergic to fur but he was to feathers.

"Strike two." Max turned to the girl of the team who was looking slightly worried. In Max's head she was wondering if her jammy genes would give her the hat trick. The girl took out some sebon with bells and threw them and followed one by a sebon without a bell. Max dodged all of them by pure reflex. Being ANBU gave a sixth sense for dodging projectiles.

"How are you doing this?" asked the sound nin frustrated. Max tilted her head and shrugged. The girl threw more sebon but aimed for the two boys, the only thing that went through Max's head was she had to protect her team mates. She moved in front of them and allowed herself to be hit by them; she had managed to position herself so they didn't hit any vital areas. She would be fine. Unless they were poison.

She picked up her scythe and hit the ground with it, jolting leaves and dirt from the floor into the air, then spun it around creating a gust of wind that blew all the leaves at the sound girl. It included some sebon she had laid out down earlier. The sebon pierced her neck like it had on Zabuza so long ago and the sound girl dropped like a sack of potatoes into a death like trance.

"Strike three you're out," said Max, she noticed the first sound nin she had taken out, was climbing out of the hole. He saw his team mates lying on the floor. His eyes widened, if she could take down his team mates then they were in trouble, he needed to tell Orochimaru. Max gave a cheery wave when he looked at her.

"If I give you my earth scroll will you let me take my team mates away?" he asked, Max thought for a few seconds then nodded. The sound nin placed it down and picked up his team mates and hurried off. Max went to collect the earth scroll only to notice that there was a team standing between it and her. Shikamaru, Ino and Choji were standing there.

"Move or I start hurting," she growled, waving her scythe at them she had not had enough sleep to deal with more people.

"We need it to get bargain for a heaven scroll," argued Ino.

"If you had asked I could have given you one," said Max holding up both her heaven scrolls and dodged the shadow moving towards her.

"Nice try Shikamaru but no, like I would just hand it over? How about a trade, you give me the earth scroll and I give you a heaven scroll," reasoned Max. Ino nodded and picked up the earth scroll and threw it at her while Max threw the heaven scroll at them. Only then did she see the state Sasuke was in.

"What did you do to Sasuke?" she asked, she was only curious, since Sakura had left the academy there wasn't any point going after him anymore since she had only done it to annoy her rival.

"I did nothing but prevent him getting killed, or worse," said Max. No one asked what was worse than death, as shinobi they were aware death was actually not to bad in comparison to some things. They parted ways and Max moved over to her team mates again. She poked Naruto in the side and he twitched. She repeated it to Sasuke but his time her hand was swatted away.

"Sasuke if you don't get up now I will show your fan girls that adorable picture of you when you were six and sleeping with a teddy bear," she cooed. The effect was immediate as Sasuke sat bolt upright looking around fearfully. "So you are awake," she smirked.

"I wish I wasn't I feel like I got run over by a herd of animals."

"Fighting an S class missing nin does that to you," said Max as if it was something that happened every day. For her it had been for a while.

"What did he want?"

"You."

"Gross."

"I know, more precisely, he wanted to poses you to use your Sharingan to copy all the techniques in the world," Max clarified.

"Oh, so what do we do now?"

"Wait for Naruto to wake up, go to the tower and let me sleep. I don't care which order"

"Don't we need an earth scroll?"

"We do and we have one, the sound team tried to attack but failed and now if you'll excuse me, I need to sleep," Max said, ending it with a yawn as she curled up and immediately fell asleep, Sasuke just sighed.

\----

It was almost dark on the end of day two when time she woke, she assessed the situation and saw Naruto was still out of it while Sasuke was eating some fish. She sat up, while she stretched she took the fish from his hand and took a bite. Much to Sasuke's annoyance, she recognised the look, and giggled.

"Why did you steal my fish?" he demanded, he was hungry and had cooked it just right for his tastes.

"Steal is such a harsh word, I prefer take with no intention of returning, besides this is good fish. I haven't had fish like this since… Ita …my old team cooked some," Max said, she knew his brother was still a sore spot. She reapplied her Henge to cover her ears having only just realised they were still out. Sasuke hadn't mentioned them yet.

"Whatever, we should move now, one of us can carry Naruto," Sasuke grumbled, Max could see his attitude toward his cooking paralleled Itachi's.

"Thank you for kindly volunteering," Max smiled, pausing in her chewing.

"I think you should, you had some of my fish."

"Do you want it back?" said Max, she opened her mouth to show him half chewed food.

"Fine I'll carry him," sighed Sasuke.

"Cool, let's go and I'll show you a technique on the way," said Max, she prided her self in being fair most of the time. It was a good way to condition Sasuke, only reward him when he volunteers to do something instead of using it as a bribe.

The headed off after leaving no trace that they had been there. Only half way through the journey did Max remember the rain nins near the end so to get around it they took a detour and managed to get to the tower easily. She had shown him how to shushin so they moved a bit faster.

\----

Naruto had woken up just before they reached the tower, Max had thrown a water balloon at him when she saw him start snuggling into Sasuke, while it would have been funny, the team did not need an argument now when they were so close.

On the wall was the riddle, Max decided to let the other two figure it out, she had already taken this test. She handed them the two scrolls and they opened them to reveal a smiling Iruka.

"Congratulations you pass the second part," he said.

"Can we go now?" asked Max.

"Have you found out what the words mean?"

"If I say yes will you let us go? I need to talk to the Hokage, or at least get a message off to him," said Max yawing.

"Can you explain it to the others to prove it," asked Iruka. Max rolled her eyes and gave a shortened version of the lecture, Iruka nodded at them and showed them where they would be staying and took Max to Anko before disappearing off somewhere.

"Anko, you don't look to good."

"My traitorous teacher turned up."

"I know, he tried to get Sasuke."

"Is he ok?"

"Sasuke didn't get marked, I stopped snake face but couldn't kill him," said Max.

"I'll inform the Hokage about who he is targeting," said Anko who then left. Max headed to where they were staying only to bump into Gaara.

"Hi Gaara, hi Temari, hi Kankurou," she greeted and dragged Gaara into a hug.

"Max, did you know you're the only person who can hug Gaara?"

"Yup! So, you passed, which team did Gaara kill?"

"Just some rain team." There was a crash from somewhere in the tower and Max just knew her team were involved.

"Cool, anyway I have to prevent my team from doing something embarrassing," With that she dashed off to her room. She opened the door to see a sheepish looking Naruto and Sasuke who was just sitting on a bed. The dresser was toppled over but no one looked hurt. Max raised an eyebrow.

"Do I want to know?" she asked, both boys shook their heads.

"Good, if you need me I'll be around," she said and walked off. She ended up on the roof and was looking over the forest. She didn't notice that she had dozed off until she felt her pillow move. Wait, pillow? Moving? She opened her eyes and saw she was leaning on a very familiar person.

"Itachi?" she asked tiredly.

"Who else would let you sleep on him?"

"Good point, though I think Gaara wouldn't mind if I asked, Sasuke might mind but only if I promised to teach him something, Naruto would probably let me but I don't know about anyone else. But if it makes you feel any better, I think you're more comfortable." They sat in silence for a while until they heard someone clear their throat behind them.

"Hi Deidara," greeted Max, having used her FA to quickly identify him.

"You've met?" asked Itachi.

"No but I know of him. Why aren't you with the shark man?"

"He's recovering from an accident, yeah," said Deidara with an evil glint.

"Did something explode on him?" 

"She's smart, yeah."

"Sometimes it scary how much she knows."

"So what did Kisame do to make you hurt him?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to meet you and I figure the only way would be to get Kisame out of the way for a bit. Itachi talks about you and your skills a lot so it only natural I wanted to meet you, yeah," Deidara explained, Max looked at Itachi who was looking intently at the forest, she guessed he was a bit embarrassed.

"I like the way you think Deidara," said Max smirking, it sounded like something she would do. "So what brings you here?" she asked.

"Leader told us to look out for kids with potential," said Itachi.

"But were both really here to gather more information. You see, me and Itachi are in Akatsuki for the same reason. Our village leaders wanted to know more about it so we were sent in under cover, funnily enough so is Kisame,"

"Is there anyone who's actually loyal to the group?"

"I have no idea," said Deidara. suddenly they felt chakra moving towards them. Deidara and Itachi disappeared. Max turned to see Kakashi approaching. His expression was unreadable. For some reason this scared Max, she had always been able to read his expressions, even with his mask.

"Hi?" she said testing the waters.

"How could you be so irresponsible?" growled Kakashi, glaring at her.

"Huh. What did I do this time?" Max was kind of scared.

"You decided to fight one of the Sannin who is currently a traitor, and could have got yourself killed," he said still glaring at her.

"What was I supposed to do?" argued Max.

"Run and get help," suggested Kakashi, they both knew that wouldn't have helped.

"Yeah and let Sasuke get a cursed seal, I think not, I don't leave my team mates behind…ever. Besides I'm still alive aren't I?" Max defended. Kakashi just sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I was worried, after what happened to the team last time, I didn't want to go through that again, you're like a little sister to me and I don't want to loose you," said Kakashi.

"I'm a big girl I can handle my self against an army if I need to. You know that better than most. I'm fairly sure you haven't forgotten the Kumar clan." 

"I know, it's just-"

"I know, I promise next time I shall avoid fight with missing nins and traitors. I might as well quite being a ninja," she added sarcastically.

"That not what I meant. I just want you to think before you jump in head first," he snapped and then departed.

"You failed to mention the fact you had fought Orochimaru," said Itachi, he and Deidara had reappeared as soon as Kakashi was a safe distance away.

"I don't want another lecture on how I should think before I do," Max groaned leaning back on the roof.

"Actually I was going to congratulate you, not many people can say they went toe to toe with him and still be alive," Itachi complemented, actually sounding impressed.

"He used to be Akatsuki so if you can hold your own against him I'd say that's good," added Deidara.

"I did what I felt I had to do and I still don't think I've recovered from it, seeing as I only have had about 5 hours sleep since the beginning of the second part of the exam," Max grumbled, she shifted about on the hard tiles hoping she would suddenly find a comfortable spot, she didn't want to go back inside just yet.

"Then sleep," Itachi offered tugging her over to rest on him.

"Do you think we should have told her that her Henge dropped?" asked a smirking Deidara.

"No, she looks too cute with the ears," replied Itachi as he stroked them carefully.

This time when Max woke up it was morning and her first thought was 'where my pillow?'. Then her mind realised she was alone, and from a puddles in the gutter that it had been raining. She also noticed she could see her ears.

Her mind started to panic as she tried to think about when her Henge could have failed. She came to the conclusion that it had dropped when she had been sleeping, which meant Itachi and Deidara had seen it. So much for that secret.

She quickly put her Henge up again and walked to her room to find an amusing sight, Sasuke and Naruto were sleeping on the floor curled up together. Sasuke was hugging Naruto. It was obvious they had fallen off their beds.

She took a few pictures; Itachi would get a kick out of them, Laura and Anko probably would too. Then she decided to wake them up to see the reactions. First she tried to wake up Naruto by flicking his ear, it didn't go to plan though as Naruto only burrowed deeper under the blankets. She tried to wake up Sasuke but he only hugged Naruto tighter. Deciding it would just be too cruel to wake them up when they obviously are happy she left the room again.

She wandered through the tower for a bit talking to random people, for some reason the sound team avoided her, but the other teams were nice enough. It was about midday when she heard yells from her team's room. She ran up the stairs and flung the door open to find her team mates glaring at each other; she couldn't help herself and burst out laughing. Behind her Kakashi appeared and looked at them and decided he'd find out later.

"What are you laughing at?" demanded Sasuke.

"It so hard to believe you were so cute cuddled up and now you're trying to kill each other."

"You saw that! Why didn't you wake us up?" asked Naruto.

"I tried but failed, besides you were too cute to wake up," said Max, both he team mates glared at her. She made a snap decision and ran, closely pursued by both of them. She spent the rest of the day running from them and they only stopped when Max told them that if they didn't stop they would be too tired to continue and they would never become chunin. It worked surprisingly well, but she suppose the fact she had pinned them to a wall first helped her case. They had gone to bed after that, the sun far below the horizon.

Naruto and Sasuke had gotten their own back though.


	28. Max gets bored

The next morning was the last day of the second test. Max woke up on the roof again; she was puzzled since she remembered falling asleep in her team's room. She came to the conclusion her team mate had taken revenge on her. She checked her self for clothes or injuries or similar.

She found she was fine; they wouldn't have dared to do worse if they valued life. She also noticed she was wet; it had obviously been raining again. She got up and stretched out the cricks in her back and jumped of the top of the tower landing neatly on the windowsill of her team's room.

She saw them still asleep unfortunately in their own beds. Many evil plans formed in her mind but none seemed just right so she decided to leave them to dread what she would do, it was evil enough for the moment.

Once again she wandered around the tower, she found Anko in one of the training rooms beating up a punch bag with a picture of a certain Sannin on it. Max had gone to the other one hanging in the room and started to punch it. He punches grew faster as she got into a rhythm. That what she spent the whole morning doing, Anko besides her punching her own bag.

"Who do you see when you punch it" asked Anko, wondering who could get Max this pissed off.

"A couple of people I used to know," she replied, in her mind eye she could see people from her old school.

All too soon she was called down to the main area and given a lecture in which she managed to sleep while standing and looking attentive. Another skill that was the by-product of school. The first match was finally called and every one went to the balconies. Only then did she notice that Mustang and Ed and Hawkeye were standing by the Hokage with Laura to translate.

She knew she sould have paid attention to the other fights, learn the styles and whatnot but they were genin, she was fairly confident she could just steamroller them if she wanted to.

"Next match, Maxine Hakie vs. Ino Yamanaka" announced the examiner, Max looked at the board willing it to change, when it didn't she settled to glaring at the Hokage. Ino had already jumped down and was waiting.

"Would Maxine come down or she will be disqualified."

"Fine I'm coming," she said and leapt over the edge landing opposite Ino who had just jumped down from the same balcony. She saw Naruto and Sasuke setting up a small betting corner.

"Begin." Max sat down, she knew this was going to be a waste of time so why make an effort. She saw Ino prepare her family jutsu and simply switched with a wooden log seconds before it hit her.

She knew Ino would have to wait a bit before her mind returned and decide to end it now, she shushined behind Ino's body and held a kunai to her throat, when the spectral form of Ino's mind headed back it by passed Ino and went into Max. Maybe she should have put more thought into this.

"Ino if you don't get out of my head I will rip you mind apart," she said, mentally fighting for control to any observer it would look like she was having a fit. In her mind she appeared in the place that looked like her school and quickly found Ino in and office labelled 'control'.

Inside it Ino was moving a dummy of Max while Max's subconscious was trying to stop her. Rolling her eyes Max stepped into the room and grabbed Ino and took her to the door marked 'exit' and threw her out then quickly returned to the conscious world to see Ino rubbing her head. Max picked up her dropped kunai and held it at Ino's throat again.

"Give up?" she asked pressing the kunai deeper.

"I give up," she squeaked as the examiner called the match.

"Winner Maxine." He dodged a kunai headed at him.

"My name is MAX not Maxine," she fumed, each of the finalists drew a number and Max was put up against the sound ninja who had passed. The final details were explained and they were dismissed.

Max sent the next day working on her scythe fighting, she had given the third hints about the up coming battle and wanted to be in top shape, she would likely need to be. To be on the safe side he had given her two scrolls with blood seals for himself Kakashi, Max and Itachi one was about Max and her situation and the other was about Itachi and his mission.

\----

She had been sent on a mission anyway to find out about some rumours of some 'men wearing black cloaks with red clouds' near a village not far from Konoha. She was almost at the village when she felt some chakra moving nearby, she altered her direction to collide with the others.

"Sup people," she called as she burst from the tree line, only to find that she had too much momentum and almost hit a tree, she hit the tree side on and fell to the ground. She picked her self up from the floor to see Itachi and Deidara looking at her with concern.

"What? That didn't hurt, I mean I've done worse," she said remembering some of the occasions with far more fondness than they deserved. It had looked so much worse than it felt.

"So what brings you two here?" she asked as she dusted herself down.

"After the third part of the exam we've been ordered to attempt to capture Naruto but that can't happen." explained Itachi.

"Don't worry about it, I'll be around to stop you."

"We'll have to fight properly, give it all you can and don't forget it will be two on one," warned Itachi.

"Since when have those odds scared me?"

"She is a bit cocky isn't she," observed Deidara.

"Most of the time she can back it up," reasoned Itachi, "Only most of the time though."

"So what are you doing now?"

"Heading to watch the chunin exams. Maybe this time you'll win," teased Itachi, blocking the half-hearted punches from Max.

"You only just beat me, by a tiny bit. Besides I could beat you if we had to fight again," protested Max.

"Which chunin exam was that?" asked Deidara.

"The one in Mist a few years back."

"I think I remember watching that one. That was you the one who used the fire, the small kid?"

"Yup"

"I reckon you should have won your fights were more impressive," said Deidara.

"I know," she sighed and with that she realised if she didn't move now there would be people finding them. With a wave she shushined towards home.

Every time she saw Itachi she missed her old team more. She sometimes saw Hana around and they would talk about the good old days. Like missions they had been on or some of the pranks that had always managed to backfire. It wasn't quite the same though.

\----

During the month before the third part Max spent the time training with Naruto until he found Jiraiya and started training with him. She trained with Sasuke a bit before Kakashi stole him away to teach him Chidori. So now Max was bored and a bored Max is bad. She was currently annoying the Hokage.

"Why is the pile of paper so big?"

"Because people need to ask me for things."

"I really don't see why Naruto wants to be Hokage, all they do is sit in an office signing pieces of paper," she sighed and sat on the chair and began to hum.

"If I send you to train with the ANBU will you leave me alone?"

"Sure."

"Squad alpha three need an extra member for a while. Just give the squad leader this scroll, they're pretty green so don't be to hard on them." he explained as he quickly wrote a note, Max took it and leapt out the window to get her ANBU gear and made her way to the training grounds. That is why she was now fighting three on one.

"Ah I've missed this," she smirked as she fought, this was so much more fun. The team she was training with were in awe they had heard of the team delta seven and how they had been an almost unstoppable force almost a legend, now they knew why.

\----

Laura had been stuck with Mustang and the people with him, she was a bit tired of translating so had begun to teach them Japanese. Max had helped out for a bit when the ANBU team had been sent on a mission. The FMA crew were amazed by the ninja techniques and Ed was forever asking about the equivalency to which the answer was, 'I don't know', which coincidentally was the most said sentence by Max especially when she had done her speaking exam for German. Best phrase to learn in any language other than 'Where's the bathroom?'

At some point Max had gone to train with another team of more seasoned ANBU. On her way back she had over heard Kabuto conversing with the sand sibling's teacher. She noticed that the boyfriend of one of the ANBU who she had been training with was also listening; only he got noticed. Max jumped into the fray to help him. She was glad she had her ANBU gear on still. 

She aimed to disable mainly but between them Max and Hayate killed Baki while Kabuto was just injured and had fled. Unfortunately Max and Hayate didn't make it out completely unharmed, Hayate was definitely worse, and would have to be in hospital for a while. With Max it was a few scratches and a deep wound on the side of her stomach. She transported Hayate to hospital and informed Yugao, Hayate's girl friend. Max knew she had been on Kakashi's team before getting moved to another one as team leader.

\----

The month finally passed and they were at the arena, Max had threatened Kakashi that if he made Sasuke late he would never see his books again. For some reason Sasuke was on time. They stood basking in the attention until the first match was called.

"Maxine Hakie vs. Dosu Kinuta" Max smiled, her opponent looked at her wearily remembering the fight in the forest of death.

"I forfeit," he said. He didn't want a repeat since he only just survived last time. Max looked crest fallen, she had been wanting to fight but she knew she would have her chance later.

The fights passed until it got to Sasuke vs. Gaara, she saw the fight and was getting more and more nervous. Max was torn about what to do, she wanted to protect Gaara and Sasuke but if she did that the third would die. She came to her decision she would help the Hokage, the others at least survived on their own. Disappearing from their box she quickly grabbed her ANBU gear she had stored in a scroll and put it on shushining to the Kage's box.

She was just in time. Orochimaru reviled himself to the third and they moved to the roof Max silently following, using a technique to bend the light round her so she blended with the background. It was a technique she had developed in the month in her spare time.

She saw the Sound Four put up the purple barriers and knew there was no backing out now. For the first few minutes she stayed perfectly still, watching the beginning of a battle that would probably kill one of them. By staying still it ensured her technique was working properly, if she moved the light would distort and someone might notice.

She saw the first two Hokage's get raised and saw the one with the number 4 on it and threw her scythe at it forcing it back down and leapt over it grabbing it before it followed the box into the void. Outside the box a squad of ANBU were watching, ready to jump in at the first opportunity.

"So someone got through my subordinates shield?" questioned Orochimaru.

"No," Max didn't elaborate.

"Do tell how?" inquired Orochimaru as the front of the box's opened to reveal the two Hokage's, he put a special kunai with a tag into the back of their necks. They went to attack the third.

"No," Max repeated.

"Do all ANBU have a limited vocabulary?" he asked the third.

"No but they don't give out details," she said in the same emotionless tone.

"You're kind of short aren't you." He was obviously trying to get her enraged enough to attack.

"You look like a creeper but do I complain?"

"Ah she has a sense of humour. She must be gifted but that scythe looks familiar, like one of the genin… you're that brat from the second part of the exam who put that blade through my chest and beat the sound team. You can't be a genin!" Orochimaru said. Under her mask Max was smirking

"Just like Kabuto can't be," she returned.

"This time you won't beat me," he said and attacked.


	29. Max versus S-class Shinobi

By now a forest had grown in the box of purple curtsey of one of the former Hokage's. Max and Orochimaru traded blows that would be deadly if they had connected. Each flaming fist of Max's was dodged and each jutsu of Orochimaru's was elegantly twisted around as if in a dance.

Each slice from her scythe was blocked and ball of fire was dodged. Max was having the time of her life, she was fighting for her life and she loved it, she had always been and adrenaline junkie. In her mind songs were blaring full blast each one fast paced.

Orochimaru brought out his sword, mildly grossing out Max, but she barely missed a beat as she continued fighting. She saw the third fighting with his monkey turned staff thingy. She bit her thumb while dodging a jab and while putting her scythe back in its strap and pressed her hand to the ground.

"Summoning technique twin P-90 style," she whispered and grabbed the guns and started to fire at him. He moved as soon as he saw the guns; he had heard rumours of them and experienced first hand what they could do. Max chased him around the mini jungle, she was smiling to herself. It was like laser quest or airsofting. 

She was so absorbed in her game of hide and seek she didn't notice one of the resurrected Hokage's throw a sharp wooden kunai thing at her until it penetrated her back, not quite getting past her ribs. She left it there, thinking it would be safer, stop the wound from bleeding too much, then it exploded, knocking her off the branch. She was lucky it had missed her spine. Unfortunately it shattered some of her ribs barely missing her lungs. The scar would be pretty impressive though.

Her back was now bleeding profusely and she reached into her pack and grabbed some gauze and bandages, with some precision and haste she wrapped the wound. After Yuri had died she had taken some lessons in medic training.

With the delay she had lost her target and was almost out of ammo. That had always been her problem she would get so absorbed in the game she wouldn't notice it. She had one clip for each gun left before she would have to resummon them.

She closed her eyes and searched for him using FA, locating him quickly she set of in pursuit, trying to ignored the pain in her back. She noticed in the passing the third had sealed the other two Hokage's using shadow clones but wasn't in a good shape. This angered her, he had been like a grand parent and no one would take that away without pain or a few missing limbs.

She renewed her chase with a set mind, Orochimaru was going to pay, big time. Her eyes were filled with emotions but she felt none, set in the mindframe of a shinobi. She found Orochimaru and they engaged in more close combat, fierce determination from Max sending her on the offensive.

Max knew she had very little time, the Hokage would die soon without help and her back was still bleeding, it was also starting to hurt to breathe. Her guns were slung awkwardly across her back ready for a moments notice surprise attack that would no doubt hurt her more.

Her heart pumped loudly as she attacked viciously; unconsciously tapping into her tenant's power, her wolf was keeping the majority of the pain at bay and keeping her alive in general. Her Henge had fallen when she had been injured and so her ears were visible and flattened against her head. Max managed a lucky blow catching him of guard and wedging the blade of her scythe in a branch, in a fluid movement she grabbed her guns and pumped him full of bullets.

Orochimaru had put his arms up in defence as a reflex. Now his arms were a shredded bloody mess. Knowing he wouldn't win this round he retreated to the barrier and it fell admitting the ANBU team who had been patiently waiting they rushed to the current Hokage while Orochimaru made his escape.

Max emerged from the forest and saw the devastation that had been caused by the invasion. In the distance she saw Gaara with his demon and Gamabunta battling it out. She knew they would be fine but it still hurt to leave them as she headed to help drive the invaders out.

She saw Yugao and her team telling some ninjas not to go any further. She knew Yugao was still sore about what had happened to Hayate and that it would be good for her to get some anger out. She went back to the stadium to help where the attack had started.

She had been helping some of the jounin when she saw a massive snake head towards the village and she headed off again, she hadn't noticed the signs of exhaustion and had out of habit taken a soldier pill. It was a reflex when she was lacking energy.

By the snake were tons of ninja of both sides battling it out Max joined the fray once again, some part of it was just automatic. It seemed like a dream from Max's point of view, everything just happening, she wasn't even aware of what she was doing. The snake disappeared suddenly and the sand and sound ninjas began retreating, the ANBU seeing them off. Max had returned to the stadium, knowing she would only be so much help. It didn't take long for her vision to fade as she collapsed.

\----

The aftermath of the attack wasn't as bad as it could have been, the Hokage was alive but very weak, the village had damaged buildings all over the place but no civilian was severely hurt. Gaara and the other sand siblings had made peace with team 7.5.

No one had noticed the two extra ninjas who had been following Max since the barrier had fallen and attacking any invaders. No one had noticed they had a slash through the symbol on their headbands. Max had been found passed out by these two certain missing ninjas who had taken her to hospital, in the confusion, no one looked at them twice. 

A few days later later Max woke up disorientated and cranky, she was cranky because she woke up and immediately a nurse came up and started telling her she had been reckless and should have left it to the professionals.

To which she had promptly yelled at the nurse that she was a professional, inside she was wondering if this nurse was related to the one at her fist chunin exam. She had been visited by her team and the FMA crew and later by the Hokage.

"Hey old man, how are you holding up?" she asked weakly. Even after this time she hadn't regained all her strength.

"Not as bad as it could have been thanks to you."

"I was only doing my job," she insisted.

"Well you did a good job, I may not have been here otherwise. I also came to say I'm retiring," he said and Max gaped.

"Who's going to succeed you? Please say it's not Jiraiya."

"No it isn't, I offered him the job but he turned it down, so instead he suggested taking Naruto on a training trip to find the other Sannin, Tsunade." he said and Max sighed in relief. "Apparently you did quite some damage on Orochimaru."

"He just annoyed me so much. I don't think he'll be using his arms for a while," smirked Max, the Hokage nodded then left to give her some peace.

\----

At some point during the night she woke, it wasn't natural awakening so she looked for the cause using FA in the dark and saw two people in a corner.

"What are you doing here; you might get caught or killed?"

"You could have gotten killed too so why can't I risk my life?" he asked in a joking manner.

"I don't have a whole village against me unlike some people," she said glaring at him half willing him to leave. The hospital was supposed to be one of the most secure places.

"That's not my fault and you know it."

"Once again you've amazed me," said Deidara interrupting them before they got completely of track. He didn't want to waste time and Kisame was being released from medical care tomorrow and would be partnered with Itachi again.

"I amaze loads of people just by turning up for anything," she said.

"But once again you've faced Orochimaru and lived," Deidara pointed out.

"I blame the adrenaline."

"You still forced him to retreat and made him lose the use of his arms."

"What's you point?"

"You could be a powerful ninja." 'Could'? She was a powerful ninja.

"I say again, what's your point?"

"We were told to approach any potential candidates for Akatsuki so I'm doing my job even though I don't like it."

"I refuse, I hate wearing cloaks but the hats are pretty cool but not enough to get me to join…"

"Good if you had agreed I might have had to knock some sense into you." Max giggled, Deidara was fun.

"Wait Itachi… Why are you wearing purple nail polish?" asked Max.

"I lost a bet. I have to wear it for 12 months" That just set Max of giggling again.

"What was the bet and who was it with?"

"That would be me, the bet was on who would win the chunin exams, he said you would but since no one did he lost," said Deidara.

"Dude, I think you're my new favourite missing nin, sorry Itachi," Max grinned, basking in the glare radiating from Itachi. Both Max and Deidara were in silent hysterics. They didn't want to make noise in case they drew too much attention. They chatted for a bit longer before they had to leave.

\----

It was another week before Max was allowed to leave the hospital, she had a massive scar on her back in the shape of a starburst, the skin still shiny and raw, but it was hidden except the tips that peeked up her neck and some that showed between her shirt and shorts.

The next week she was cornered by Kakashi, she had kind of guessed this would happen and had been avoiding it. She was going to get a lecture.

"Maxine Hakie!" Yup she was in trouble, people only ever used her full name when she had done something wrong, which was surprisingly not that often. "I can't believe you. Barely a month after I told you not to put yourself deliberately in dangers way against someone like a Sannin, you go and do the exact thing I told you not to! Its amazing you lived let alone hurt him!" Kakashi raged, his voice wavering and on the verge of yelling.

"I'm not a kid, I know what I can and cannot do and I did what I felt I had to."

"You should have found another way," fumed Kakashi. His anger was visible and Max was unsure on what to expect. He took some calming breaths. "Do you ever pay attention to what I tell you for your safety?"

"I'm a Shinobi, I taunt danger every day and kick its ass every night it's in the job description," said Max defending her actions.

"You're still young though, Orochimaru had way more experience than you."

"That sounds wrong," said Max trying to stifle a giggle, she knew she was supposed to be being serious when she was getting a lecture but she just could not help it, she'd heard this one before. Kakashi mentally backtracked on what he just said and groaned.

"Why must you twist my words?"

"It's funny and keeps me from losing my mind and generally lightens the mood."

"You had a mind?"

"See, mood lightened."

"I'm not going to win am I?"

"Nope, which is what makes me so adorable," Max grinned.

"Naruto's leaving with Jiraiya tomorrow to find Tsunade in a few days."

"I know. I'm taking some time of for a bit to let my back heal completely, so you can train Sasuke for a bit," said Max, truth was she would be following Naruto to take care of the attack.

"Just remember no picking fights with people with more skill and experience than you."

"Ok." Depends on what kind of experience, she highly doubted Orochimaru had more experience cooking than her, and skill was also negligible if the skill was easily beaten.

"Why do I get the feeling you've found a loop hole in what I just said?" asked Kakashi looking at the smirk on her face.

"Because I always do." Kakashi only groaned again and left.

\----

Two days later Naruto said his good byes and left, delayed by a certain Sannin's habits, no one noticed the blur following them. They went from village to village and Max followed almost getting caught on several occasions.

She saw Jiraiya get distracted by woman who was quite obviously flirting with him and knew it was show time. She watched as the two cloaked figures approached Naruto's room and watched the confrontation. Sasuke turned up and ran at Itachi with Chidori causing Max to slap he forehead quietly. Itachi broke Sasuke's wrist with ease.

"Come now Itachi, what did your brother do to you? Did he steal you nail polish again?" asked Max as she dropped her light deflecting jutsu.

"This is my fight, stay out of it," growled Sasuke.

"I have a bone to pick with him to, don't be selfish," she replied, Naruto just looked confused.

"He killed my clan,"

"I kill people every day I don't have people try to kill me for revenge," said Max "Wait no that's wrong there was that time in rice country when I wiped out that clan because they tried to kill me. But that's not the point, Itachi was my team mate and get me demoted to snot nosed brat." Itachi hid a chuckle, Max loved to be dramatic.

"But I thought you had to become an academy student," asked Naruto brightly. Max sighed Naruto was too oblivious for his own good sometimes. He then caught on.

"So what are you doing here anyway? I doubt this is a reunion, normally there's punch at a reunion."

"We're here for the fourths legacy." said Kisame as he took Samehada from his back. Max smirked as she took her scythe from its strap.

"Seems we have to get rid of this annoyance first," said Itachi.

"Aw, you think I'm an annoyance, I'm flattered," Max cooed powering up her hands, she stepped forward ducking under the swung blade and poked the blue skin sending a shock through him, ducking back when he collapsed. Max was so close to laughing. How many times had she fried him now, about 3 times?

'And he's an S class missing nin?' was the thought through every ones mind. Except Sasuke who had been watching intently with his sharingan.

"Fried fish it is, I forgot the lemon though," declared Max, she was getting stared at. In her peripheral vision she saw some shuriken thrown at her and ducked as they imbedded themselves into the wall. "Oh so now you're going to fight, but be careful, you wouldn't want to chip your nail polish." Once again Sasuke ran at Itachi with Chidori in his other hand. What happened next was so fast it was a blur to most, Max missed most of it while rolling her eyes. The next thing that was seen was Sasuke was held against the wall.

They saw Itachi bend down to whisper something in Sasuke's ear and then withdraw and look in his eyes. Max reacted and used substitution switching herself and Sasuke. Her eyes were shut as she activated FA slipping her head band down seconds before fully replacing the kid. She winced a bit as the pressure against her wound changed to a bit painful.

She felt the hand on her collar clench, and saw the other hand go to punch her, her team mates saw and moved to stop him only to find she had stopped it herself. He tried a few more times knowing it would be useless, but it had to be realistic. Every movement he made was countered.

"You should know I can see with my eyes closed, your genjutsu is useless against me," said Max casually. This was the first time her new teammate had seen her use FA. She saw Itachi narrow his eyes and felt the glare, she was really hoping he wouldn't use the other technique of Mangekyo or she would be dead and that would be bad, Laura would be insufferable.

"Every one has a weakness, I just have to find it." Max glared at him behind her head band extremely glad of it since to glare her eyes needed to be open. They both knew she'd said that before, then done something stupid. He pulled her away from the wall and threw her to the other end of the hallway, Max reacted and landed softly, her feet planted on the wall.

The fight raged on for a bit, each getting hits in their well practiced dance. Every so often Sasuke tried to join in only to get tossed away by one of them. No one noticed Kisame recover and grab Max as she ran passed. She immediately noticed the lack of her moving and looked up to see Kisame's not so happy face. His hand was on his sword and he was about to swing it at her when she kicked him. In the nuts.

Naturally he crumpled. The others reflexively moved a hand to cover their 'areas' wincing. Itachi made a decision and decided that he would prefer to go and not end up like Kisame, he darted forward and shushined out with Kisame.

When they had gone Sasuke glared at Max holding his broken arm. Max pushed her headband up and glared right back.

"I wanted to kill him," he said, practically whining.

"You sound like a child who just had his toys taken away," said Max mocking him in the same tone.

"I don't care it was my right to kill him."

"And it's now my right to kick your ass for being a whiney little..." Max was cut off when Jiraiya turned up. He looked around confused, with a girl over his shoulder. Using FA quickly she confirmed his identity.

"What happened?"

"I beat Itachi and Kisame stopping them from getting Naruto and stopped Sasuke from doing something completely stupid."

"How did you beat two s-class missing nins?" asked Jiraiya seriously wondering about this girl.

"Kicked one in the nuts and the other one decided to leave before I did the same for him," said Max, Jiraiya looked at her two team mates who nodded their heads.

"I need to take Naruto as I found a new lead on Tsunade," he said and grabbed Naruto and they disappeared. Max turned to Sasuke and grabbed a medical kit from her bag. Before he knew it he had his arm wrapped in bandages with a splint to keep it in place until they got to the hospital.

The next month passed quickly. Jiraiya and Naruto returned with Tsunade who was made Hokage. The third had informed her about everything she should know causing Max and Shikamaru to be promoted.


	30. A way to Earth

It had been a couple of weeks after the events that had followed the chunin exams; Tsunade had taken Sakura and Haku as apprentices. Max still didn't like Sakura as she fawned over Sasuke still and it bugged her since it would always be in the middle of their training. Naruto had grown a lot stronger as Jiraiya helped him with the things Max couldn't do.

Zabuza and Haku had moved into their own flat and but visited often. Max had gone to Suna and officially helped them while they had no leader but also to see Gaara.

Sasuke had also gone and Max would train with him after he had insisted he become stronger and Max felt after how he had helped at the chunin exams and later at the confrontation with Itachi and Kisame he hadn't pushed to fight too much, so he deserved something. At least next time he might not be so useless.

She hadn't let him copy anything but made him master them on his own. They hadn't become as close as Max and Itachi had, they didn't have any of the shared experiences that drew people together.

\----

Currently team 7.5 were exploring, Tsunade had decide they needed to do a few missions together to keep them a team after Suna had stabilised and Naruto was back. Naruto had taken point, Max on the left and Sasuke on the right, Kakashi bringing up the rear in a diamond shape. For some reason Sakura had had to go with them and was in the middle, but to balance it out Ed was with them, he had wanted to see the ninjas in action while on holiday.

"What's that hollow stone circle?" asked Naruto over the earpieces.

"Stone circle?" was the question from Kakashi as the rest of the team converged on his position, Max took a bit longer because of the fact she was being lazy, it was probably just an old path marking or something.

"Yeah with runes around the edge," Max's eyes went wide as she remembered Stargate SG1 another TV program she watched. It had a stone circle with 'runes' she ran towards where the rest of her team was. Her suspicion was confirmed as she saw it; it was exactly the same as on Stargate. She tapped on it to make sure it was genuine.

It was, Max was smirking inside, all the things she could do. Then a though hit her. Did that mean Earth existed but it was different from her Earth, or was it that she was only on a different planet and her earth was the same as the one she'd left? The first idea sounded more likely.

"Do you know what it is?" asked Kakashi as he saw her face fill with recognition. It was like the desert exploration all over again.

"Yes it's a gate to other worlds," said Max bluntly, still running her fingers over it.

"Ha, ha very funny, do we look stupid?" were the smart words of Sakura, she was still trying to make herself look smart as she batted her eyelashes at Sasuke.

"You want an answer for that? Besides, I'm not kidding."

"Then how do you work it?" Sakura seemed determined to undermine her. Max looked around until she noticed the DHD, dial home device, she was about to go over to it when the Stargate started to activate.

"Move away from the gate now and don't touch anything that comes through unless I say so." Everyone scattered to the trees, the ring stopped moving and the blue water like stuff formed. Out of the blue come what Max regognised as a MALP.

"What's that?"

"It's not dangerous so it doesn't matter." A few seconds later five people emerged, Max recognized them as SG1, Daniel Jackson, the archaeologist, Samantha Carter, the scientist, Teal'c, the Jaffa, and finally Jack O'Neill their leader. Max jumped down from the tree she was standing on and landed in front of them wielding a her scythe.

" _What do you want here?_ " demanded Max in English, she was giving the fist impressions and she didn't want it to be bad or weak, Jackson stepped forward.

" _We mean no harm. We're explorers from a place called Earth._ " The rest of the team jump down behind Max at her signal.

" _Do you speak Japanese? English is not common here._ " Max replied, she vaguely remembered Daniel being a linguist. There would be no point relaying the conversation if he could.

"Yes, I know lots of languages," responded Daniel in Japanese with a strange accent Max recognised as similar to hers when she'd started learning. "I'm Daniel, these are my friends, Jack, Sam and Teal'c." Each person waved as their name was said. It was easy enough for them to guess they were being introduced.

" _I'm Max, these are my friends,_ " Max said, mimicking his introduction, in English for SG1's benefit, "Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura." Again there were waves by the relevant people. 

"What can you tell us about this planet?"

"How about we go back to the village, then talk. The woods aren't always safe."

"Ok lead the way." Daniel translated the offer to his team, they followed team 7.5 plus extras to the village.

\----

Once again thanks to Max they had a new alliance in the making. But what they didn't know was that Max was hoping to go to Earth and see what had changed, if it was the same as she knew or if it was different, and if so, how different. Unfortunately the FMA crew had needed to go home to report which delayed the talks, they would be called for in the event of a treaty coming into the makings. Laura and Daniel were both present for translating, that way both sides could be sure of what was being said.

A few weeks passed and SG1 had been in contact with Earth and had come to an agreement. They SGC wanted to use the area near the gate as a Beta site in case the Alpha site was compromised, with the agreement that a few leaf shinobi would be stationed there to oversee the site and make sure the other villages didn't encounter them. On occasion Shinobi would be allowed on Earth if they paid the mission price but they were not permitted to take part in wars.

"We would like to invite a party of delegates to Earth to finalise the treaty." Daniel informed them. "It is suggested three ranking members of the village and any guards appropriate, if you let us know how many to expect we will ensure there is plenty of accommodation."

"Due to our alliance with Suna they will be sending their delegation with us and from Amestris some of their people will be coming too." SG1 and co nodded an left to their hotel room, followed by a guard of ANBU.

"Max you'll be my official guard with one of the ANBU. You'll be reinstated for the mission and I'll be taking some of the genin as a learning experience but I'll allow you to pick, though my decision is final," Tsunade informed Max who was delighted at getting back to her old rank.

"I would suggest Shikamaru, Shino, Neji and Hinata, and I suppose my team but only because they would moan otherwise. I would also suggest Kakashi comes, if only to keep the others in line, I also would like to request Laura be allowed to come along too, she's been translating so far and so knows what we've already agreed and she is the most observant person I know. If there's something bad about any treaty she'll find it."

"Ok and your next mission is to go to Amestris and explain it, your new ANBU partner will come with you. You leave tomorrow" said Tsunade. Max nodded and left. Tsunade sighed as another masked figure entered the office.

Itachi was back for a bit, his absence from Akastuki explained away by old family traditions that needed upholding or his sharingan would decay. All lies. The real reason was that Akastuki were lying low and the members had been told to blend in for a while, after the attack on Naruto, there had been a few other attempts that had all failed, but gained a lot of attention for the group. The family traditions excuse had allowed him to separate from his partner and visit home. 

No one recognized him, he was back as ANBU and never was without his mask. This time his code name was Ryuu, he had been grateful it was more aggressive than usagi. Max hadn't stopped teasing him for weeks.

"Ryuu. Nice for you to be back, you understand your mission?"

"Yes."

"You'll need to tell her who you are, but wait until your almost there, we can't risk someone seeing." The masked person nodded and left.

\----

The next day Max met her new partner by the gates in her ANBU uniform and they wordlessly departed, Max leading slightly since she knew where to go. They were silent most of the trip. Max didn't really know of any common ground with her partner and he wasn't talking so she assumed he didn't want to talk some ANBU were like that. Truth was Itachi didn't want to speak in case she recognized his voice.

They reached the mining town quickly and took the train to Central; they had henged into normal people so not to arouse suspicion. They were about half way through their journey when Itachi decided he should tell her and hope she doesn't over react.

"I was instructed to tell you who I was when we got here," said Ryuu catching Max's attention. Max nodded and they released their henge's in an empty compartment and both took of their masks. When Max saw who it was she smirked, and tackled him.

"You're my partner? How could you not have told me? I'm insulted and shall kick your ass at the next opportune moment." Itachi sighed in relief at least she hadn't tried to kill him. Yet. If it was anyone else he wouldn't have been scared but Max would quite happily beat him into the ground.

They replaced their masks and the henge's. The rest of the train ride was spent catching up properly. Each time they had seen each other it had been briefly. Itachi almost forgot that Max was only ten, she sounded more mature, like she was a teenager, but then again, she'd always sounded older.

They arrived in central and made their way to the headquarters to talk to the person in charge. He had agreed to send four people, so on their return journey they were accompanied by Roy, Riza, Maes Hughes, Ed and Al who just tagged along. Since none of them know Max was one of them, and Max was keeping her identity secret, there journey was silent for most of it, until they got to wind country.

"So who are you?" asked Ed.

"If you were supposed to know then we wouldn't have masks, you'll probably find out later when there's less danger of us being noticed." Max hated having to be so blunt but it was part of the job. Max suddenly noticed something in her peripheral vision and held a hand up causing everyone to halt.

"Someone's following us," said Max, Itachi nodding in agreement, the other five drew some sort of weapon, but when Max saw Riza's gun she decided to give her an upgrade. She quickly summoned an AK-47, due to the similar size of the normal weapon it wouldn't be too different and handed it to Riza.

"This is better but works the same," she said with a grin and quickly demonstrated reloading it and handed two magazines to go with it. They spread out into a circle. They were ready for anything and they weren't disappointed, a group of about nine chunin level ninjas attacked. Max knew the type, they were scavengers anyone who went into the desert ill prepared would be weakened and were easy picking.

Max started spinning her scythe slowly letting it build up speed and on and unseen cue the scavengers attacked. One on each of the Amestris people and two on each of the ANBU.

Roy quickly got rid of his using his flames and Riza quickly targeted her opponent and took him out. Ed gutted his enemy using his arm blade thing and Al, well he basically stood there none of the weapons doing anything, he was to gentle to kill so his enemy was taken out by Riza who was really liking the gun. Maes just threw a dagger thing into one his enemy's throat.

Max decapitated one with her spinning scythe and kicked the other in the head into one of the other enemy nins who was getting shot at by Riza he consequently got shot too. Itachi just killed them with two kunai.

"Man that was easy," commented Ed, Max agreed, it was a bit strange. Riza was on the verge of stroking the gun and Max really didn't want to be the one to tell her it wouldn't stay forever. It had to be done though.

"Riza, I need that gun back, I promise I will get you one if you give it back," said Max slowly so not to provoke her. Riza sighed and handed it back and Max unsummoned it. They continued their journey without any more incidents and had lightened up a bit. They got to Suna and got told their delegation would be sent in a soon. Since they were ahead of schedule they stopped of at a village to take a break, they headed for the hot springs to at least temporarily get clean. The second they went back out into the desert they would be all dusty again.

Al had decided to explore the village instead and Ed was glad his new arm was more rust resistant. They guys went onto their side and Max and Riza went into the other. To say she was surprised about Max's age would be an understatement.

"Max? You're so young yet you killed with no hesitation."

"It's how I was trained, that wasn't my first kill and it probably won't be my last," said Max. They sat in silence for a bit soaking in the water.

"Where did you get that gun?"

"It's my summon, in the shinobi villages some ninjas have summoning animals to help them, I, however, have summoning guns."

"It reminds me of how Ed makes his weapons sometimes; both include pressing hands to the ground or surface"

"It does a bit, ah well." They chatted for a bit until the springs were closing and went to finish their journey. The Suna group would follow, unfortunately delayed for unknown reasons.

\----

They were so close to Konoha when they were attacked again, it wasn't just a bunch of ninja who weren't worth the weapons they used. There were 15 jounin level and 20 chunin with a few dozen of higher levels. They had been planning to cause chaos in Konoha and a secondary force would come in after to take the village while they were recovering.

Unfortunately the secondary force had been hiding near by and they were out numbered and ambushed, they held out for a while, Riza wielding the AK-47 like a madwoman but then someone called out to capture them not kill. This threw off Max and the others and they were captured, though none of them had gone down easily, Max wasn't even sure how they'd managed to get Al, . They had had all their weapons removed and hands tied apart to separate wooden poles so they couldn't do any jutsu or transmute stuff. The leader came out of a tent that had been hastily erected.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? The infamous Ookami of the leaf and her new partner, along with a group of foreigners," he sneered

"Dude I swear everyone here is blind, why do people point out the obvious?" said Max she earned a backhand against her face. Max and Itachi both had had their masks removed but they had got back-up henge's up just in time.

"Silence, insolent brat," and she was back handed again for good measure. Max was seething; she was not a brat, insolent yes, but not a brat.

"Who are you calling brat you dumb buttface." Max received another back hand for her troubles. She let out a string of curses in various languages and spat at him, she had seen it in movies and wanted to try it out, another thing crossed off her list. The leader glared at her and walked off. They were left with a couple of people watching them. Max rotated her jaw a bit, those blows had hurt.

She remembered back to the original team 7 and one of the training sessions. 

She'd late for training and Yuri was teaching them something new. She hadn't even had time to get there early to set up a trap. She'd blamed her alarm clock; they should have make those things shatter proof. She remembered downing a few cans of energy drink as she raced to the training ground.

She'd only arrived half an hour late, only to see none of her team mates. She activated FA but was too late as she'd been jumped on, since FA had been in the earlier stages it took a few seconds to get used to it. She had found herself hog tied and wasn't pleased.

"I was late by half an hour because my alarm broke, I don't think that warrants getting tied up," she had complained as her team mates and teacher appeared in front of her.

"I needed a volunteer so since you were late you practically volunteered yourself," had said Yuri cheerfully, Max was cursing her alarm clock to oblivion. "Today we will be learning about how to piss of your captor without getting killed and interrogating without maiming the prisoner, since Max is probably an expert at getting information she will be the prisoner." Yuri was grinning evilly. Max fondly remembered that grin.

"I bet this is just revenge for that time your shampoo got replaced by honey, it wasn't me I swear," protested Max.

"Right Itachi your up first, remember not to harm her," he had stepped up to her and Yuri whispered a list of what he was to find out from Max. He then crouched down to her level and looked straight into her eyes.

"When's your birthday?" he asked, going for the straight approach first. He had probably though Max would make it easy just to get it over with.

"Every year," was Max's smartarse reply. Later Itachi realised that was the best answer he'd managed to get from her.

Hana tried next and didn't do much better and Yuri tried and failed to get anything useful out of her. Max had had a great time.

Max was brought back to reality when the leader emerged from his tent with a couple of torture devices she recognised. The FMA crew were getting worried especially since Max didn't look fazed. Truth was she had gone back to reminiscing. She was kicked in the gut by one of the guards. She glared at them defiantly.

"Pay attention to those better than you."

"I'm sorry I wasn't listening, can you repeat that?" Max asked, she got kicked again. The others were wondering why she was being this disrespectful. Max was doing this to keep the FMA crew from getting hurt and avoiding the potential political disaster that would follow.

The leader walked up to her.

"You seem to be the leader, so I will ask you the questions, every time you don't answer or give an answer I don't like, you will be beaten," he said as one of the others brandished a whip with some ball bearings embedded for more damage.

"Bring it" she said rebelliously. Her eyes were set and her game face was on, she wasn't backing down. Nothing they did could be worse that what she'd been through.

"What is your mission?"

"Kick your ass to snow country and back." The first strike stung a bit.

"Who are these other people?"

"People who I was hired to protect duh." Itachi smiled a bit, Max was giving answers with out giving answers, apparently the leader didn't like this answer either as the next blow landed.

"Where are they from?"

"Well when a man loves a woman…" Another blow.

"Which country you insolent girl!"

"If I told you, you wouldn't know where it was." That wasn't the right answer either. Max's back was bleeding slowly now but who knew how bad it would get.

The question/half-arsed answer session continued and Max's back got worse until the leader decided to try one of the others, he picked Itachi since he wouldn't be able to understand the others, the FMA crew had been careful to speak only in English so they wouldn't be questioned.

Max panicked, she could take this because of her tenant, Itachi didn't have this advantage. Luckily she was saved by a kunai through each of the ropes binding them to the poles.

Max and Itachi sprung into action followed by the FMA crew. Max quickly summoned an AK-47 and threw it at Riza followed by some magazines.

What happened next was a blood bath, something had obviously annoyed Max and she was massacring people ripping their heads off. She didn't like her friends being threatened.

Three Suna ANBU emerged from the tree line to join in. they were followed by Gaara and Temari. Further in the trees were Suna's advisors but they stayed back. Gaara was crushing people to death with simple gestures and Temari was blowing them into trees and slicing their skin with her fan.

Itachi was killing people but at least he looked sane, probably the only one who did. Riza was having a ball, she loved the gun.

Roy was torching people left, right and centre, Maes was killing on a lower scale but they were cleaner deaths, Al was fighting back but only to the extent he could, his reflexes weren't too good in the amour compared to the ninjas.

The battle was over in a matter of 20 minutes, what was left was a pile of bodies. The group hadn't escaped completely unharmed though, well Gaara had, but that was different. Max had done some more stupid moves and the scar on her back now had a three claws marks bleeding in addition to the whip marks. The rest just had minor cuts and bruises. Itachi was silently gloating the fact he was unharmed. It was driving Max nuts. 

"I get it I know, I managed to get hurt but you don't have to go on about it besides I killed more." Max was getting strange looks as Itachi hadn't made a sound. They hadn't been around long enough to know that Max could tell what he was thinking when it was this kind of situation. At some point he'd put his mask back on, the henge had at least kept his identity secret, the mask gave anonymity.

\----

Back in Konoha Max got carted of to hospital for the next lecture in the 'you're to young, let the trained people do this' series to which she promptly yelled at them that she knew and wanted something for the damn pain and that they should do their jobs like she does hers. She was slightly pissed off.

It was late by the time she got back to her house and got jumped on by Naruto; she was only patient with him because he didn't know that she was currently plotting deaths and the only thing stopping her was that they already were low on medical staff.

The next days she spent recovering properly, her back had got a fair amount of abuse so needed time to recuperate. She would be prepared for the negotiations though.

She had been dragged back to the hospital a day after she got back to her house, since she only left last time because she had snuck out. Now she had ANBU guards on her door and window.

She wasn't happy. She hated being confined and she hated hospitals. Most of all she hated the way the nurses treated her like she was five and took away all her caffeine saturated drinks claiming it would stunt her growth. That would explain her being slightly shorter than average, slightly as in one fricking inch. One. Not two but one. No she was not happy one bit.

She was released from prison with white walls and disinfectant a week later. She had been told to take it easy but Max hadn't been listening, she was just grateful to get out of the hell hole. Unfortunately the nurses had persuaded her team mates and people who she trained with to make sure she didn't exert herself. It wasn't a good week for Max.

"Why are you being so mean to me?" she questioned when Kakashi told her to take the rest of the day off.

"Have you tried to go against those nurses?!"

"Yes, I ended up getting dragged kicking and screaming back."

"Then you know why, besides its not good for your back."

"You make me sound like I'm one hundred and eighty with back problems."

"Your ten with back problems, how do you get into these fights anyway?"

"I wasn't looking where I was going and practically tripped over their camp?" Kakashi only shook his head; if it wasn't an S-class missing nin it was a bunch of rogues.

\----

It was the day before the treaty meeting thing would happen and they stood in front of the gate, a safe distance away ready to go. Max and Itachi were in clean ANBU uniform with cloaks on top and masks in place. Max had henged into herself but taller and older looking just to be taken more seriously. The rest in their standard gear Laura was as excited as Max to be going to their home planet even if it was likely in a different dimension.

The SG team dialled the gate and the ninjas and alchemists and assorted others watched as the wormhole formed. Once the event horizon was stable, half the SG team went through. Max was to follow as a scout and report back over the radio.

She thought of the irony, through another portal to a new adventure. Who knew what would happen.

Max stepped through the portal, her new adventure awaited with anticipation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter for part two should be up soon


End file.
